Islam and the West in Time and Space: Perceptions and Encounters

After reading Augustus Richard Norton’s “Hezbollah” and better understanding the contemporary developments in Lebanon, I was very curious to find out more about the history of one of my childhood favorite uncles. Raffet Miguel Aun was such a joyful “tio” to be around. I remember how he used to greed me as soon as he heard my voice entering his house saying “taaaaliiiiiitttaaaaa”. He used to make the most delicious Middle Eastern dishes including my favorite “raw” Kibbeh. Last week, I e-mailed my cousin Susan and I asked her if she could send me information about my uncle Rafi and I was most curious to know about his ethnic background and why their family migrated all the way from Lebanon to the small city of Passos, a predominantly catholic city in the south of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. She wrote me back saying that she knows very little about her father’s past (he passed away few years ago). The few facts she knows come from what her grandmother told her mother (one of my mother’s nine siblings). Susan said that her paternal grandparents migrated to Brazil in search for a better life and she stated that her grandmother hated when people in our city called them Turks, since they were Christians and not Muslims. It was very interesting to me to find out this sad part of my uncle’s life because it probably meant that religious misinterpretation affected the way Christians conservative predominantly in the city mistreated him by labeling him Muslim or Arab due to the way he looked. It also showed me that because of ignorance of Islam, the sentiment of Anti Arab / Muslim is not particular only to the US or Europe as the readings of this week focus on, but is also extended throughout Latin America. This confirms the effects of centuries of stereotypes in our outlook toward the “other” religion and unless we break this vicious cycle of mutual repugnancy, achieving respect and peace will be almost impossible.
How do we start breaking the vicious cycle? The key is education or public diplomacy in both Muslim and Western societies. In my view, to start to wane Anti Muslim sentiments, we need to expose to the West all the luminous and rich contribution of Muslims scholars to the birth of the Renascence period. We need to move beyond focus in the history of conflicts, which it was degrading to both West and Muslim, and restored the true historical episodes of the Middle Age. I remember in my secondary school years how the teachers referred to the Dark Age as a period where Europe was stagnant, with no presence of any intellectual contributions to the European civilization. I learned that the Dark Age was marked by invasion of barbarous violent Muslims who occupied Mediterranean Europe through horrible bloody conflicts until Catholic King Ferdinand and Isabella saved Spain and returned it to their Spaniards. The BBC documentaries “An Islamic History of Europe” and “When the Moors Ruled Europe” tell the history of our western civilization in its totality of events. When Muslims advanced to Spain, they found cities in crisis and widespread chaos. Muslims were welcomed by Visigoths. The Muslims in Andaluz were responsible for transforming the European civilization in a very significant way. They brought with them many innovations in science including astronomy, medicine (surgical instruments), poetry, public works (Cordoba was a cosmopolitan city, had street light, sewage system), agriculture (irrigation system), architecture, mathematics (numerals) and many more that revolutionized the lives of local people. They brought Greek philosophy books that had been lost in Europe and they were importantly involved in the translation of this books and commentaries from Arabic to European languages. This period is known as “convivencia” where Jews, Christians and Muslim not only were able to peacefully co-exist in the same place but also respected and worked together in the translations of these different texts. People from all over Europe came to Spain and especially to Toledo to participate in this intellectual phenomenon took home all the new ideas. However, Muslim intellectual contributions and many conversions to Islam was too threatening to the Christian land the Crusaders decided that it was time to end the Muslim “occupation” of Europe and the history after is known. What is not often said is that Muslims were massacred and there was little resistance from them. Inquisition could not live with infidels and all Muslims were expelled if not assassinated. What happened in Spain, also happened in Sicily where there were major contributions of Muslims but with no recognition. In Paris, due to the Arabic translations and most important the many Muslims commentaries on Greek philosophy and Aristotelian discussion of the relationship between faith and science and that idea that even when reason and faith contradict themselves, they can co exist, is considered major contribution to the Renascesse. More impressive than learning how much the Muslims were responsible for the birth of western thought and how ahead of us they were is the fact that we reconstructed our own history for political matters. We cannot progress if we continue to eliminate Muslim evident imprint from the history of western intellectual science. Islam since then has been permanently harmed.
In our contemporary time, nothing seems to have changed. Global terrorism seems to be one of the dominant subjects of our daily lives. Most of our worries however are based not in truth facts and the misconceptions about our enemy deter us from finding solutions in helping the world to become a safer place for our children. Islam became source of all evil according to the majority of westerns. Works of recognized scholars like Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis, have inspired policy makers to exacerbate the tensions between Muslim and Westerns. Huntington focuses on his conclusion of the eminent clash of civilizations. Civilizations that are destined to clash cannot seek together a common ground. Islam is beyond redemption. Islam is viewed as incomparable to Western values and we are under a cultural war. Us versus them, battle of good and evil, same mentality of Cold war prevails in US policy maker. To me this is all non-sense and US policies reflects exactly that as Esposito in Clash or Coexistence? states: “ This fear of Islam leads to the belief in a monolithic Islamic threat that requires massive Western political and military power”. Islamophobia has erupted since the events of 9/11 and Muslims all over the world are suffering from discrimination, harassments and injustice. Racism is view wrongly especially in the United States but Islamophobia is somehow not categorized as racism. We witness an increase of intolerance in anything related to Islam religious beliefs. However, persecuting Muslim is not going to help to solve the issue of terrorism. We need to look beyond the simple implication that Islam is the fundamental cause and understanding why extremists are gaining grounds and the context behind it. Let’s put ourselves in our fellow Muslims world citizens’ shoes.Years of economic failures by authoritarian governments in the Muslim world; US intervention in internal affairs and support of oppressing government, the situation in Iraq, the unresolved Palestinian occupation by Israel are important political factors to be reconsidered. The ongoing attack on Islam will not help Muslims to ignore the issues I listed. The more we attack their beliefs the more resentment we will create, therefore validating extremist popular slogan as the West who hate Allah and Islam. In my view, empathy is a key strategy. When we apply empathetic thought towards Muslim, we are able conceive to understand their request for the creation Islamic state with the implementation of the shariah. Religion is the pillar of society and the shariah their warranty of justice. With predominantly totalitarian governments, Islam becomes the way out of oppression. Feldman in Why Shariah? clarifies it “Shariah is not just a set of legal rules, it is something deeper and higher, representing the idea that all human beings and governments are subject to justice under the law”. However the mainstream media portrays the shariah as the evil fundamental law that cuts hands off when person commits a theft. Political commentators like Daniel Pipes has also contributing to ample the ocean of mutual misunderstanding between Muslims and Americans. People like him project an image of Islam as a monolithic religion disregarding the vast politically, economically, culturally, linguistically, racially, and religiously diversity in the Muslim world. All Muslims are presented as fanatic fundamentalist ready to bloody hijad against West core beliefs of freedom, democracy, modernization, secularization of the West. This is proven to be false as Muslims admire the West equality, freedom of speech and religion. Muslims do not dislike Western values what they do not agree is US policies towards Muslims where they feel we see them as inferior when try to dominate Muslims countries. This was clear to me when in the Roundtable discussion with the Morrocan women delegation last week, the Morrocan women got very defensive when one of the students asked them if Morrocan society was open to accept Modernization. They unified in their response saying that whenever they are asked about Modernity, which to them is a concept impossible to be defined, they see echoing an implied sense of judgmental inferiority towards their society. In Islamo-Christian Civilization, Richard W. Bulliet states “There needs to be an occasion for affirmation of principle of inclusion that represents the best in American tradition.” If we include Islam in our civilization based on historical facts we will stop to conceder it as the malevolent other especially because our animosity have been created by Christendom. It is important to find tolerance with our Diaspora Muslim community when we are absorbed by the fear that discourages us reproaching each other to find social and religious inclusion. The media has had an enormous impact in contributing in the xenophobia against Islam. It is proven to be a chain of mutual deception. Husain in Global Islamic Politics states “new and views are put forward, opinion pools reflect the media’s news and views, published pools are then highlighted by the same media to indicate “public opinion” and naturally, the White House responds to this public opinion”. This results in fueling the extremist predicament that the West is in war against Islam and validates their use of violence to defend their faith against the secular West.
Prof. Monshipouri lectures on Human Rights was very informative because he stressed the importance of engagement of governments in the Middle East in talking with the international community about the problems of Human Rights. Some countries have signed many international conventions of protection of human rights and he said that this is a major step accomplished. There is a consensus in the Middle East of a world demanding an improvement in the dignity of human beings. Middle Easters see human rights as community rights and social justice different from the individual rights approach we in the west advocate. He also state that sometimes it does not mean that a country that signed an international convention actually implements it but at least the governments are become aware of its importance. The stressed that Islam has nothing to do with the problems that the Middle East face in dealing with human rights issues. The problems he listed usually lays on power struggle associated with oppressive government maintaining his totalitarian power. He mentioned at length the inexistence of popular participation in governments. He says that there is no such thing as fair free elections in the Middle East. He talked about the problem with minorities and especially the suffering of the Kurds. Women rights were also mentioned and he stressed the importance of women to get organized as a group and protest their rights at government level. He mentioned something extraordinary happening in the Middle East which is secular feminist and religious feminist getting together to talk about preventive methods of domestic violence. His conclusion was that education is also the best ally in advocating human rights accompanied by political and economical development.
In conclusion, our efforts should be to educate our society about Islam and make evident their contribution to the West. Islam is not our enemy and indeed it can be a powerful and effective tool in reverting the cycle of terroristic violence. I will try to make a difference within my family in sharing this essay with them and asking them to find out more information about their ancestry and to eliminate any misconception that still be carried along the way. This is the morally right approach to follow; we own this to our Muslim siblings.