Religions: From Phobia to Understanding

INTRODUCTION The present situation, especially the 'war against terrorism' campaign led by the United States which led to the empowerment of the terrorist's ideology of 'us against them,' seems to be discouraging. In fact, it is. Nevertheless, giving up to these simplifications is a suicidal decision we need to avoid. We need to dig deep in our universally shared history to uncover the cultural roots of our humanity. The modern, advanced, and powerful West, regardless of whatever the concept West designates, has to discover that its scientific and technological progress continues to remain possible, because it was built on what other earlier civilizations, including the civilization of Muslims, had achieved. Muslims, on the other hand, need to recognize the historical fact that the Arabs, the original carriers of the Islamic message into the world, could not have achieved the building of the great civilization of Islam alone. It was made possible due to the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious composition of the Umayyad and the Abbasid Empires, not to mention the Fatimid dynasty in the East and the Andalusian dynasty in the West, in Spain. This composition enhanced the development of the philosophical, theological, mystical, legal, and cultural openness that characterizes Muslim civilization. More important for both the West and the Muslim world is to recognize the fact that the distinction between them is entirely artificial. Islam has become part of the West, as much as the West is present everywhere in the world of Islam. Europe, in particular, has to reorient itself to the colorful composition of its citizens; the white-skin color is no longer the dominant European skin color. Europe also needs to redefine its identity to embrace Islam not necessarily as a religion, but as an essential component of its cultural identity which is under reconstruction now each day. This is historical fact. The 20th century witnessed a great movement of migration for different reasons and Muslims are now a significant component of the European demography. COUNTERPRODUCTIVE DISCOURSE The immediate reaction to the September 11th everywhere has put the West at odds with Islam. An atmosphere of mistrust has emerged in the West against Muslims; every Muslim became a suspect, which generated a feeling of insecurity and mistrust for Muslims. The 'war against terrorism' by invading Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq has already been a great failure. Terrorism has become widespread and Al-Qaeda's leadership is out of reach. London and Madrid suffered as well as Indonesia, Morocco and Egypt in the past decade's terrorist attacks. The murder of van Gogh in the Netherlands in November 2004 caused significant shock for Muslims as well as non-Muslims. The immediate reaction was extremely irrational; every Muslim became criminal and Islam became the defendant. Now, the political environment has started to calm down and there is serious discussion and intellectual debate about the future. Nevertheless, there are some Dutch radical politicians, radical neo-liberal and fundamentalist rational intellectuals who have continued propagating anti-Islamic discourse. Those intellectuals, and others all over Europe and the USA, identify Islam as essentially a Jihadist violent doctrine directed primarily against the West; they claim Islam as a destructive, dangerous religion which is going to destroy the West and demolish Western culture. They attack the Qur'an, and some would like to have the book legally banned; the first episode of the film Fitna was released to express this message. This is the second film using art to defame Islam after the earlier film Submission, written be Ian Hersi Ali and directed by van Gogh in 2004, and was produced after the infamous Danish cartoon in 2005. I believe this kind of political as well as intellectual discourse against Islam is counterproductive and irresponsible. …