What does the West know about Islam?
The West with its overwhelmingly Christian population does not know the truth about Islam. It was true in the past and it is true today. The West approaches Islam with many preconceived notions, remaining firmly under the sway of presentations hostile to Islam. There were some justifiable reasons for the ignorance. Primitive communication methods and travel conditions made intermingling at an amicable a level difficult if not impossible. Nor was it easy to obtain books to help people understand the other side. Continuous hostilities between the two sides along with the attitudes of religious leaders exacerbated matters since such people did not enjoy access to correct information or to meeting with scholars or the right people.
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It is quite clear that both sides here have plenty of preconceived opinions about the other. Rather than feed biases about each other, if the masses in these two religions learn more about each other, they will come to respect each other’s position. At this point, no other path to world peace is on the horizon. Only mutual understanding will make this world livable in the future. And so, if I can return to the beginning of this column and ask again: Do Westerners know enough about Islam? The answer is an unequivocal no. Likewise, sadly, it is difficult to find Muslims with adequate knowledge and training to explain Islam to the West. Why? To get the answer to this question, we need to turn this familiar question around to Muslims: Do Muslims know enough about Islam? Unfortunately, no. And if you’ll allow me, I will continue on this in my next column.
Pertinent Links:
1) What does the West know about Islam?
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
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