The Image of Islam In The West
The Islamic world and the
west have interacted with each other since the very beginning in different
fields. However, in the wake of the growing hostility of western governments
and their mass media against Islam and Muslims, especially in the aftermath of
the highly suspicious incidents that rocked New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, ties have become rather
fluctuating and the question is being asked: What is the image of Islam in the
west?
The answers are obvious.
During the past 14 centuries since the advent of Islam as the last revealed
code of divine laws for the entire humanity, the Christian world had been
having relations with Muslims. As reiterated in the holy Qur’an, Islam
considers Jesus (PBUH) as one of the five great Prophets of God and invites the
followers of all religions including Christians to a peaceful co-existence with
Muslims. At the same time, Islam rejects many of the superstitions and
distortion of beliefs in Christianity as a result of the unwitting tampering by
the Israelites with the message revealed to Prophet Jesus. In the medieval ages
when Europe was engulfed in darkness, Islam was viewed as a rival
by Christianity, mainly because of fears in the West of having direct
relationship with Muslims. The information of the westerners about Islam was
mainly received from priests who had no positive opinion towards this divine
and human religion. For this reason, the atmosphere of suspicion and insult
against Islam has always prevailed in the western world and has continued so
far.
For instance, as a result of
adverse propaganda and improper approaches by Christian priests, the European
people in the medieval ages considered Islam as an innovation. The different
accusations they leveled against Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) were because of the
speedy spread of Islam in different parts of the world. Christian priests could
not believe that the Prophet has succeeded within a short time in attracting a
large number of people including many Christians to the justice-spreading
religion of Islam. It is noteworthy that the charges of the Christian priests
are similar to the accusations that the Arabs during paganism attributed to
Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The holy Qur’an has logically answered these wild accusations.
On the other hand, Christian
priests believe that the religion of Jesus (PBUH) was confined to worship and
hermitage. They feared the spread of Islam because it pays attention to both
spiritualism and material aspects of human life, would end their monopoly and
attract people. Therefore, they tried to undermine it. In this regard,
individuals like Damascus John and some other Christian priests who had
relationship with Muslims termed the Muslims as Bedouin Arabs and attributed
insulting stories to Islam, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and his followers, which
remained in the minds of the western people. Even the first translation of the
Holy Qur’an in English by Robert Sale was not aimed at understanding the truth
of Islam and for this reason many distortions are seen in it. The explanations
of Christian priests about the Holy Qur’an were always accompanied with new
accusations against Islam.
The Crusades deepened the gap
between Muslims and Christians. Although as a result of these wars, the
westerns became deeply familiar with the glorious manifestations of Islamic
civilization. The renaissance in Europe and the exit of the church from the scene of politics
brought about the hope that a clear image of Islam would be created in the
west. But unfortunately this did not happen and the superstitions of the
medieval ages still persisted as the basis of thoughts of westerners on Islam.
A study of some books and writings of the Renaissance era indicates that their
writers have not much information on Islam and that their writings are based on
the improper sayings of their ancestors. At the same the glorious achievements
in culture and science of the Islamic civilization could not be denied by Europe.
In fact, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution could not have taken
place but for the Islamic Civilization.
In the recent two or three
centuries we come across some attempts by Europeans to understand Islam. The
Scottish philosopher and Islamologist Thomas Carlyle considered the Holy Qur’an
as a sound wonder. Dismissing the unfounded topics of the biased western
writers, Carlyle said: God has taught this great man knowledge and wisdom and
we have to listen to his words before anything else. The German philosopher
Goethe also attempted to properly understand Islam and even some believe that
he became a Muslim. Carlyle quotes Goethe as saying: “If this is Islam why we
should not live under the umbrella of Islam?”
Bernard Shaw, the Irish
playwright was also ardent admirer of Islam and has forecast Islam as the
future religion of Europe and Europeans.
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The Image Of Islam In The
West (2)
In part one, we explained the
misconceptions of the past few centuries and also said that in the 19th and
20th centuries, some of the European intellectuals such as Goethe, Thomas
Carlyle, and George Bernard Shaw began to shun the biased approach and hailed
Islam as the dynamic religion. However, relations have continued to fluctuate,
mainly because of colonialism and after that of the indirect hegemony of the
West, especially of the US on the majority of Muslim countries. Today western
governments exploit many Muslim states, not only economically and politically
but also culturally and socially. The statesmen in the West have no proper
understanding of Islam. The US heads the list in this regard and pursues a barely
disguised hostile policy against Islam and Muslims on the assumption that it is
the champion of Christianity and humanitarian values. Presently, the west
applies different means for propagating against Islam and undoubtedly the most
important of them is the mass media. Unfortunately, most segments of the
international mass media are under Zionist control, and are dictated by crusader
attitudes, which were openly admitted by US president, George Bush, in the aftermath of the highly suspicious
attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.
For instance films are
regularly produced in which Islam is indirectly portrayed as the religion of
violence, recession and backwardness. These films leave negative impression on
the audience, which is deliberately kept in the dark on the dynamism of and
support for peace, liberties and social justice in Islam. In Europe and America and other societies influenced by the West, the
press, radio, TV and now the Internet, presents a negative image of Islam.
Every day hundreds of articles, books and news reports spill venom against
Islam. The other factor for fanning anti-Islamic sentiments in the west is
Zionism. The Zionists try to introduce Arabs and Muslims as the real obstacle
to peace in the Middle East. The Western press has taken the Zionist bait and
repeats these wild accusations without mentioning that the real cause of war
and tension in the Middle East is the usurper state of Israel. The other accusation leveled against Muslims in the
past two decades and especially after the September 11 incident is terrorism.
According to the western media and governments the Muslims who defend their
rights against aggressors are terrorist and violence seekers. These media
particularly level the charge of terrorism on Palestinian Muslims defending
themselves against the attacks and savagery of the Zionist regime.
In the past few years the
western media and governments have intensified their unfounded charges against
Muslims at a time when the US is
openly pursuing its expansionist policies in the region and has militarily
occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. The so-called intellectuals in the West have come up
with the weird theory of the Clash of Civilizations to justify their sinister
goals and mislead ordinary people. However, despite the efforts made by the
western governments and mass media to undermine the visage of Islam, not all
people in Europe and the Americas believe the poisonous version that is dished out.
Although, the US and some European governments practically follow the theory of clash
of civilizations vis-à-vis the Islamic world, many Christians have chosen the
pattern of dialogue with Muslims. Useful talks have been held between Muslim
and Christian thinkers and the successful continuation of this trend is a proof
of the real visage of Islam to the world. On the other hand, the Muslim
immigrants in the West have familiarized the western people with the valuable
teachings of Islam. Muslims have also made great efforts to use the media
convey the message of Islam. Today many Islamic books and the works of Muslim
thinkers have been translated into European languages. If only the
international radio and TV networks of the Islamic world could pool their
resources and become conscious, the real image of Islam and Muslims would be
properly presented to an eager world. The access of European and American
people to credible Internet sites on the genuine teachings of Islam have
greatly helped dispel the negative image. The growing trend towards Islam in
the west is proof of the fact that Europeans and Americans fed up and
frustrated with the brazen materialism of their liberal democratic societies
are eager to discover their innate spiritual values. This has alarmed the
enemies of Islam, especially western politicians and the Zionists, but it seems
there is nothing more than they can do, having exhausted all their cultural,
economic and now military resources in the futile fight against the religion
decreed by God for humanity.
منبع:http://www2.irib.ir/worldservice/englishRADIO/ISLAM/islamology.htm
http://mnakbari.blogfa.com/post-19.aspx
