Clash of the Civilizations

Several years ago I gave a few lectures on cultural understanding with regards to Islam and prejudice. At the time Taliban had just recently captured Kabul, and I was a volunteer in an NGO promoting education for girls in Afghanistan. As you can expect there was quite a bit of fuzz over this, as several people were afraid that the funds we collected would end up in Taliban's hands. (They didn't.)

The world has changed since then. The Twin Towers have fallen to the ground and the Taliban has yet again been reduced to a rebel army. Still however I believe the lecture bears repitition. Atleast what I remember from it.

Let it first be said however that I am an atheist, and my sympathies for Islam are exactly the same as they are for Christianity or Judaism: deism is nonsensical. However I do believe in respect and understanding, and that is what I hope to further here.

If we look at Islam through our own media we can easily sum up the presentation: war, terrorism, poverty, sharia, burka, outlawed alcohol, dictatorship and not eating pork etc.
To most people these terms are (mostly) strongly negative. However let us look at how europe would look in a foreign newspaper:
Religious and ethnic conflict (the war in bosnia was raging at the time, as well as northern Ireland, Kosovo came soon thereafter), terrorism (IRA, ETA and historically the RAF are well known.), poverty (we have some pretty decent slums in our cities), rioting (Soccer matches in the UK, streetfighting between nazis and antinazis, or police), political chaos (several countries have a hard time putting together functional governments and chaos ensues, Italy and Belgium are good examples) and so forth.
The media reports what people find interesting, and people seem to find violence and conflicts to be interesting. Still to a certain level they do report the truth, but only to a certain level.
Islam is the second largest religion in the world, with app a billion adherents spread out over more or less the entire globe. Let us look a little closer at the islamic customs and countries.
Several of the countries are democracies, and atleast as secular as my own home country. Granted many of them have limited political freedom, and some have nearly none whatsoever. This is however changing rather rapidly. Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world, and an islamic state. Pakistan has recently taken steps towards becoming a full fledged democracy once again. Afghanistan is being reformed as is Saudi Arabia. Heck even Iran has some sort of democratic reform going on. Turkey is a secular democracy, a nato member and possible future EU member.Most of the countries are also peacefull, and haven't experienced war since world war II or before. Several of the countries are also among the world's richest.

Terrorism is certainly one of the words we have come to associate more and more with Islam after the founding of Israel in 1948, and yes there are a great deal of Islamic terrorist in the world. They are not alone however, and historically speaking neither are they special in any way. We certainly have our share of terrorists in Europa, as previously mentioned, and there is hardly anything that points to terrorism being particularly linked to Islam. Most islamic countries are indeed in peace, and there is a great deal of evidence showing that many islamic terrorist are indeed from western countries. The world is complex.

Many would point to the concept of Jihad as a special link between Islam and terrorism, and yes Jihad is often used to legitimate terrorism. However even this term is complex. The most exact translation of this term would be 'struggle', and there are several types of jihad. Most important to all muslims is the inner, or small jihad, the struggle for oneself to be a better muslim. Most known to us however is jihad as holy war, a war that can be declared when an islamic country is under attack by non-muslim invaders. Islamic theologians disagree on exactly when this form of jihad can be declared, but a very famous example was during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Not even that jihad was uncontroversial though, and Bin Laden's holy war on the USA is a flat out misinterpretation of jihad in its entirety.

I could go on and on. Burkas are only used by the Pashdun tribe in Afghanistan and Pakistan, female circumsicion is uncommon outside of Sudan and Somalia, sharia is different for each country and can only apply to a muslim etc etc. Islam is also very complex, and while some muslims are reactionary, violent and fanatic - most are respectfull, progressive and likeable people.

I have known several muslims from many parts of the world in my life. Iranians, Afghans, Pakistanis, Albanians and Kosovans, as well as Iraqis, Kurds and Turks Some of these have been jerks, but most of them have been very OK. More than anything working with and talking to and knowing muslims has taught me that Islam is about respect and tolerance. Muhammed (peace unto him) and his followers granted foreigners religious freedom while we Europeans burned people for dissent. The books we burned as blasphemous were stored and studied in the Caliphate and the prophet himself had higher thoughts on women than were common in his time. It's a shame that our image is Islam is dominated by Taliban's destruction of the Bamyan buddhas, and other such repulsive acts, and if you read this, please reconsider. The world needs reconciliation and respect, not conflict.