Collision Between Islam And The West - Term Paper Example

Collision Between Islam And The West In today’s world Islam has been adopted for many causes, from modernism to traditionalism, liberalism to conservatism, which may have nothing to do with its original transcendent message of unity and equality before God. In this essay I attempt to find reasonable answers to two important questions within the context namely, a) At this critical period in the Islamic history what issues should be explored or followed by the Muslim societies to bring programmatic changes? And, b) Examine my own perspective of whether the Islamic world is at the surge of clashes with the West or otherwise. In this part of the essay I try to analyze the problem areas and possible solutions that could be adopted by the Muslim community in order to bridge the divide between them and the West. The chasm between Islam and the West has become more of a contemporary international and social issue. There has been a great deal of speculation and accusations following the 9/11 attacks and the world began to notice how Islamic fundamentalism was disrupting the natural course of events in the world. The true essence of a religion based on peace, love and equality was lost and replaced by fundamentalist and orthodox ideas which are illiberal, violent and detrimental to society and international relations. The tension between Muslims and the West has been a somewhat recent development. It has probably got to do with the fact that the West considers Islam to be illogical, intolerant and disrespectful to women. Islam on the other hand thinks of the West as selfish, greedy and lacking in ethics and morality. There is a clear divide between the two and it is something which is hard to eliminate completely in the present situation. It may however be possible to reduce the magnitude of the problem. To do so, the two parties in question have to adopt a practical and logical approach that would be mutually beneficial and optimal. The main problem with Islam today is that it is preached on the grounds of exclusivity, making it an absolute faith, which also implies that other faiths and beliefs are untrue. This causes an air of intolerance and leads to a very precarious social and religious framework in society. The key is to learn to respect and accept other faiths (or even the lack of it) as a way of life and not impose one’s own perception of religion on to others. There is no room for coercion when it comes to personal beliefs. It is important that heads of religious organizations (in this case, Islamic leaders) come forward and strive towards bringing about a positive change in the mind set of Muslims. They have both the knowledge and the capability to discourage their men from resorting to violent and harmful measures in the name of religion. Contemporary fundamentalist ideas encourage its followers to resort to extreme measures against anyone who is outside the purview of their principles. This is a wrong approach as modern life comes with a multitude of nuances arising from a constant mix of races and cultures as well as leaps and advancements in technology and science. The world today is a much smaller place. With travel and communication reaching lightning speeds and countries opening their doors to visitors and immigrants, there has been a lot of interaction between the East and West over the past few decades and as a by product of it, a lot of discord. In order to reduce further discord, it is important that governments and religious groups reach an understanding and work together. Islam has always wanted to establish the conventional Sharia as a system of governance. However, returning to the Sharia comes with a cost since this gives rise to a narrow, orthodox and unforgiving ruling body which is what the Islamic fundamentalists are striving hard for. This has resulted in numerous conflicts and terror attacks that we have been witnessing of late. As these principles are indoctrinated from a very young age they have a very profound impact on the mind of the person which is what leads him / her to perform heinous crimes in the name of religion. Islam is an organized religion. It follows congregational prayers and gatherings of believers under a wise leader. The leader thus needs to impart useful knowledge to his people, encouraging them to take up the positive aspects and discard the negatives. It is his moral duty to coax his followers to use the true knowledge of Islam in spreading peace and harmony which is the real message from God instead of propagating hate crimes and violence. It is important that religious leaders take up this initiative since they are the only ones who can actually make a significant difference in the mind set of their followers. There is a need for governments too to take up this issue in a sensitive and diplomatic way instead of blowing it out of proportion. It would be rational for countries to separate religion from state. In today’s world it would be impractical and difficult for a government to abide by religious laws. Moreover, governments should make strong efforts to prevent typecasting of all Muslims as terrorists and fundamentalists as a major chunk of the Muslim population is not. There has been a lot of hatred directed towards Muslims all over the world which has resulted in dire consequences to innocent people. Many of these people have faced restrictions on their travel, prejudices at work place, and a general cold shoulder from the non Muslim fraternity. The sad truth is that most Muslims strongly disagree with fundamentalist Islam and condemn terrorist activities that take place in the name of religion just like any other peace loving person would. The world fails to recognize that Muslims who carry out brutal and inhuman activities are only a minute fraction and that they are branding all Muslims on the basis of these people. Governments thus have an obligation to identify the real culprits. It is also their duty to educate the masses in this regard and make them understand that all Muslims are not terrorists waiting to attack. To do so, they need the support of media as they also play an important role in formulating the mind set of people. In many cases, it is newspapers and television that escalate a simple problem in to a burning international crisis. This part of the essay focuses more on my opinion of the ‘Islamic situation’ as I prefer to call it. This situation is in fact a very dicey one with more and more people thinking that the divide between Islam and the West is only getting wider. I came across a report on BBC News in the light of a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in Washington. The results of the survey showed that public understanding regarding the widening rift between Islam and the West was indeed true. The research also found that Muslims were likely to blame western policies for their own lack of prosperity. However, apart from countries like Germany and Spain who associate Muslims with terrorism most of the other European countries do not hold a similar view. Countries like France and the UK are more relaxed on their view of Islam. On a more personal level, I would agree that Islam and the West are indeed at loggerheads and it is highly unlikely that this issue could be resolved anytime in the near future. The reason for this is that the two subjects under consideration here work on completely different levels and there seems to be no common ground between the two. In general, issues are resolved on the basis of some middle ground which people are able to identify after studying the subject matter intently. However, when it comes to Islam and the West there seems to be no meeting point. In other words, they are like two parallel lines that run along the same plane but never meet. So this is an impending issue that will continue in future as well. There are a few reasons which I attribute to be the cause of this widening gap. To begin with, the principles of Islam have been discovered and rediscovered over the past few decades which resulted in some radical movements being formed in different parts of the world. Many people turned to orthodox religion in order to protect their identity in a fast changing world. Unhealthy conditions in certain nations also contributed to the cause. Chronic political, economic and social crises in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan have been responsible in one way or the other for the origin of such radical movements. Many youngsters of these countries have been absorbed by the Islamic military and minority groups and have been indoctrinated with fundamentalist ideas and activities. The sour relation between India and Pakistan added fuel to the fire. Conflict of religions and cultures in European countries where there is a significant immigrant population was another trigger. Religious freedom became a cause of concern in countries like France when there was a public debate regarding the use of headscarves and turbans with some for and some against it. The row over cartoons making fun of the Prophet made the situation even more volatile. Another important factor contributing to this religious unrest is the steady increase in the number of second and third generation immigrants in Europe as well as the United States who are turning towards fundamentalist Islamic teachings due to the psychological impact of a conflict of cultures. These youngsters have difficulty in understanding their own identity and feel lost between cultures. Consequently, they turn to religion for a solution to this culture shock and in most cases end up with more than what they had bargained for. Over recent years there has been an alarming increase in extremist philosophy and moderate Islamic views are somehow a thing of the past. The West fears the Islam of the present. They have become wary of the proponents of true Islam and feel that today Islam is only about terrorism and fundamentalist ideas. The 9/11 attacks, explosion in the London underground and the attack on the Taj hotel in Mumbai have all resulted in a world wide animosity towards Muslims and terrorists in particular to a point where terrorism is equated solely with Islam. The interesting aspect here is that Islam has undergone a process of transformation much like the rest of the world did. As a result when technology progressed, science gave rise to better products, human rights developed, inter cultural possibilities were realized, and art and music expanded into a global phenomenon Islam chose to return to its basics, to a system where the Sharia was the only chosen form of law and all else became manifestations of human materialism. So what we do get to understand here is that with passage of time, Islam will only become more rigid and unforgiving than what it already is. The new breed of fundamentalist youngsters has thrived on this new school of thought. The sad part is that none of these youngsters are aware of the truth or philosophy behind this religion which was solely intended for the betterment of mankind and promotion of universal brotherhood. The teachings of Islam are against violence and harm to fellow human beings. The principles of charity, forgiveness and redemption from one’s own sins and short comings form the basis of this religion and yet everything has been misinterpreted and distorted beyond recognition. In a world where everybody is striving for perfection and anything can go horribly wrong with the snap of a finger, it is important to understand the true essence of religion, not just that of Islam, but any religion, as something that supports humanity, and not as something which destroys it. Read More