A casual reader of the daily newspapers could be forgiven for thinking that the word “Muslim” is an adjective used to explain violent events in remote parts of the world that are otherwise incomprehensible.
“Muslim Militants” rebel in Algeria, “Muslim guerillas” battle each other in Afghanistan, “Muslim extremists” attack airliners in the Philippines, a British novelist lives in the shadow of a death sentence proclaimed by a “Muslim cleric,” “Muslim extremists” attack tourists in Egypt and seize power in Sudan.
It fosters the impression that Muslim (that is, those who practice the religion of Islam) are generally trouble-making fanatics whose penchant for working out religious conflict through violence is a menace to the rest of the world. It oversimplifies complex events in which religion is only one element. It validates the belief that Islam promotes violence, which is at best a half-truth. And it belittles Africans, Arabs, and Asians by imputing to them primitive or irrational motivation that we may not ascribe to the participants in violent upheavals in non-Muslim countries. Press accounts of the turmoil in El Salvador did not, for example, describe the rightwing hard-liners as “Christian extremists.”
Dar al-Islam, the House of Islam, embraces about one billion people of every face race, from Senegal to China, from Nigeria to the former Soviet Union, and more than six million Americans as well. All are Muslims, sharing common religious beliefs, but they vary widely in behavior. Most of them are not leftist or fanatics or revolutionaries or extremists. They cannot be stereotyped in the image of one race or one kind of political or social conduct. Certainly it is absurd to identify Islam with Arabs luxuriating in oil wealth. The vast majority of Muslims are not Arabs and not wealthy. The three biggest Muslim nations are Indonesia, with about 172 million Muslims; Pakistan, with 118 million; and Bangladesh, with 100 million. The list of countries of which the population is more than half Muslim includes Mali, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Albania, and of course, Iran—none of them Arab. And many Arabs in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine are Christian, not Muslims.
to be continued...
“Muslim Militants” rebel in Algeria, “Muslim guerillas” battle each other in Afghanistan, “Muslim extremists” attack airliners in the Philippines, a British novelist lives in the shadow of a death sentence proclaimed by a “Muslim cleric,” “Muslim extremists” attack tourists in Egypt and seize power in Sudan.
It fosters the impression that Muslim (that is, those who practice the religion of Islam) are generally trouble-making fanatics whose penchant for working out religious conflict through violence is a menace to the rest of the world. It oversimplifies complex events in which religion is only one element. It validates the belief that Islam promotes violence, which is at best a half-truth. And it belittles Africans, Arabs, and Asians by imputing to them primitive or irrational motivation that we may not ascribe to the participants in violent upheavals in non-Muslim countries. Press accounts of the turmoil in El Salvador did not, for example, describe the rightwing hard-liners as “Christian extremists.”
Dar al-Islam, the House of Islam, embraces about one billion people of every face race, from Senegal to China, from Nigeria to the former Soviet Union, and more than six million Americans as well. All are Muslims, sharing common religious beliefs, but they vary widely in behavior. Most of them are not leftist or fanatics or revolutionaries or extremists. They cannot be stereotyped in the image of one race or one kind of political or social conduct. Certainly it is absurd to identify Islam with Arabs luxuriating in oil wealth. The vast majority of Muslims are not Arabs and not wealthy. The three biggest Muslim nations are Indonesia, with about 172 million Muslims; Pakistan, with 118 million; and Bangladesh, with 100 million. The list of countries of which the population is more than half Muslim includes Mali, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Albania, and of course, Iran—none of them Arab. And many Arabs in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine are Christian, not Muslims.
to be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment