Embracing Islamic Culture

 

I agree with Tariq when he claims that the West runs a risk of “seeing itself as a monolithic whole, as a civilization based exclusively on Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian tradition, to whose specific nature Islam is an outsider.”  I feel that today, many people feel superior toward Islam.  Likewise, many people association it with terrorism and other negative connotations.  If we strive to blend in some elements of Islam into our culture which is fundamentally based on the foundations he discusses, this will in turn eliminate many of the fears and negative aspects of Islam.  We need to slowly introduce Islam into our culture.  Tariq also states that Islam is based on love; Judaism and Christianity are also based on this general concept.  Tariq also follows that claim with the statement, “the upshot is that Muslims, even though they are citizens, are seen as a problem rather than as partners in a solution.”  In the end we can see that the Islamic religion is not that far off from Judaism and Christianity.  Christianity is an evolutionary doctrine based on many Judeo-Christian principles.  It seems as though Islam follows the trend in borrowing ideals from the past doctrine in that Islam contains Christian elements as well as other elements pertaining solely to Islam preached by the prophet Muhammad.  To reiterate again, Islam is not as divergent as many people like to presume.  Of course, there are going to be perversions, but there are Christians and Jews who interpret their respective religions in negative ways as well solely to benefit themselves.  I just feel as though Islam has been dealt an enormous set back with the tragedy of September 11^th, Whabbistists and Islamic Fundamentalism.  Christianity has been associated with many negative historical situations: inquisitions, burning at the stake etc.  I feel as though in time we may slowly learn to embrace Islam and slowly incorporate its fundamentals into our society.  Who knows, maybe we have already welcomed Islamic ideals into our patchwork of spiritual views that we call religion today in the West.