Transcript Document

The West, War and Islam
‫‪Disclaimer:‬‬
‫‪I tried to be as objective as I can in summarizing this paper. However,‬‬
‫رأيي في هذا الموضوع أن الخير والشر طبيعتان كانت ومازالت تتنازعان اإلنسان منذ أن خلق هللا نبينا آدم‬
‫عليه السالم‪ .‬فالجماعات االرهابية موجودة في كل دين وكل زمن‪ .‬وأن يحكم على دين كامل باإلرهاب من‬
‫اجل أقليات هو تدليس المنطقي للحقائق‪ .‬وكما قال احدهم‪« :‬إن كانت القاعدة وغيرها يمثلون اإلسالم فكو‬
‫كلوكس كالن ‪ KKK‬تمثل المسيحية»‪.‬‬
‫فكرة التعايش اإلنساني مع اآلخر ليست مستحيلة طالما التتدخل فيها اطماع سياسية واقتصادية‪.‬‬
‫فدوى الشهري‬
The ambiguity of Islam
The Islam has always been a misunderstood topic for most of the Germans.
On one hand people think Muslims suppress their women whether by the
existing of Polygamy or by some traditional habits Islamic society have like in
Turkey for example when women should walk behind their husbands. On the
other hand we have the Islamic law that includes the cut of the thief's
hand…etc. However, Islam means and call for peace and respect for all its
minorities. Nevertheless, since 9-11 the connotation of non-Muslims to Islam
changed completely. People started to think that Muslims are bunch of
fanatics who are willing to bomb themselves to other human beings in favor
of their god and they blame their religion for that. So it's necessary to explain
what's Islam and the truth of it.
The Islam State and Religion:
Islam was found by Mohammad (Abu Alqassim Ibn Abdellah) and and derived
from the Arabic word (aslama) " to submit to". Prophet Mohammad was born
in Mecca 570 AD in Koraish tribe. In 610 AD he reported an encounter with
Gabriel who informed him about the new religion and all its rituals and values,
which all were printed in the Koran Later on. According to his beliefs the only
God who exists is Allah. Islam should has its own state was one of the main
facts and beliefs prophet Mohammad had, and after his death Islam
experienced a great success and in many parts of the world even Spain was
Islamic at that time. The Islamic state reached Jerusalem and they had it for a
long while until the crusades took it from them after long and bloody wars.
Crusades not all took Jerusalem but destroyed the built-up empire.
Islam Today:
Nowadays, 2 billion people are Muslims, which means fourth
of the world's population. The religion influences all aspects of
life judgement, values, rules and behaviors. Islam also is (deen
and dawla), all rules are set by God and mentioned in koran.
Even women's treatment is mentioned in Koran in details.
There's no discussion possible about those rules and
commands, but the inaccurate formulation in Koran allows
different interpretations. Muslims have to obey to Gods rules,
that's why they don't agree with Western Law.
The Islamist Movement:
Islamic fundamentalism differs depending on the religion and time it's
usually practiced by a small number of people that represent a minority
almost anywhere. Concerning the question why Islamic fundamentalists are
more effective today than before this has numerous reasons. One is
globalization where cognitive values were introduced to the normative
world. Parts of this thinking were adopted by Muslims and older values
began to be doubted, but without ever establishing a stable order the
system of the west was not able to solve the problems of their system due
to the resulting disappointment Islamists preach of returning to the roots.
This political disappointment of the west is not the only reason for the
growth of the fundamentalists, poverty in agricultural areas where they
can't feed, which results depression and dissatisfaction. Another reason is
unemployment and the resulting dissatisfaction is projected onto the
western system.
The Jihad:
The roots of Jihad is in the Koran it would be wrong to say that Islam has
nothing to do with it, but it has different faces. Actually Jihad refers to the
act of Individual. The meaning of jihad in Arabic is "the endeavor of oneself"
and not "Holy war" used in western press. It describes the action in
accordance to God and its will. The well-known armed jihad is not the only
jihad in Islam, there's spiritual Jihad too. Actually is considered "small jihad"
and the spiritual jihad which includes the endeavors of oneself accordance
to God's will, considered to be "the big one". So drawing conclusions just by
what's propagated in western media can be unjust and very misleading.
Uncertainty of the future:
Predicting the future is an impossible task. Solutions for terrorist threats do not
exist, and no one's know how long it will take to resolve today's problems.
However, it must be everybody's responsibility to strive for a world where all
people are treated alike. That's something the cognitive part will learn from the
normative part from the world. Once the communication between the so
fundamentally different cultures starts, dissatisfaction will hopefully diminish,
thus robbing the terrorist movements of the people to recruit.
Summarized by:
Fadwa Alshehri