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24th
July 2010
Propaganda
and Misconceptions about Islam
Islamic
Resurgence
It is quite conceivable that negative portrayals
of Palestinians and Arabs resisting Israeli
and Western domination may get worse in the
coming years. This is partly because the main
thrust of opposition sentiment to not only Western
domination is now being channelled through the
ideology of Islam. Indeed, Islam is rapidly
emerging as the ideological rallying point for
Muslims everywhere as they aspire for genuine
liberation from the fetters of both local despotism
and global authoritarianism. Given the prevailing
perceptions of Islam within the major centres
of power in the West, one can expect its political
elites and opinion-makers to respond to Islamic
resurgence with even more anger and antagonism.
This would be a real pity. For it can only lead
to greater strife and conflict, exacerbated
by all the prejudices and misunderstandings
of Islam and the Muslims. As the Christian scholar,
Karen Armstrong put it, in her analysis of Western-Muslim
relations, “We in the West must come to
terms with our own inner demons of prejudice,
chauvinism and anxiety, and strive for a greater
objectivity”. In the process, one hopes
that the West will realise that if there is
to be genuine peace and harmony between the
West and Islam - and within the human family
as a whole - those structures which allow the
few who are powerful to dominate the many who
are powerless would have to be replaced by new
institutions that promote equality and justice
for all.
At the same time, as the West evaluates itself,
so must the Muslim world examine itself critically.
The rise of Islam with all the emotional power
it commands makes it incumbent upon us to ask
some searching questions about certain Muslim
attitudes and priorities. |
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Is
Islamic resurgence giving enough attention to
some of the crucial challenges confronting the
Ummah - challenges pertaining to poverty and
hunger, disease and illiteracy? Have Islamic
resurgents gone beyond rhetoric in addressing
issues of education and knowledge, science and
technology, politics and administration, economics
and management in the alternative Islamic social
order that they envision? Isn’t there
a tendency within Islamic resurgence to view
laws and regulations in a static rather than
a dynamic manner? Does the conventional position
of Islamic resurgents on the role of women in
society and the place of minorities in a Muslim
majority state, accord with the fundamental
values and principles of the Quran and the Sunnah?
Isn’t it true that the exclusiveness of
Islamic resurgence reflected in a variety of
matters ranging from charity to politics is
a betrayal of the letter and spirit of the Quran?
Are Islamic resurgents, by insisting upon their
interpretation of Islam, as the only correct
approach to the religion guilty of promoting
sectarian sentiments within the Ummah? Have
Islamic resurgents themselves contributed, perhaps
unwittingly, to the factionalisation and fragmentation
of the Ummah?
Perhaps it is time that we conceded that there
is also another side to the truth: that we Muslims
are also responsible, to a certain degree, for
the negative perceptions of the religion and
the community in today’s world.
Al haj Abdul Rasheed Popo,CEO
Discuss
Story
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