Islam And Karen Armstrong's Islam: A Short History

Islam in two Americas is a delayed thesis argument about the state of Islāmic/American relations in the US, post 9-11. As a delayed thesis, the author, Ross Douthat, opens the debate with a brief explanation of the “two Americas” as he sees it. Within the current political climate that is America today, it would be hard to argue that this divide does not exist.

After a horrible terroristic attack that shocked the whole world on September 11th in the center of New York City, Muslims in the Western world have been constantly fighting against prejudice. After September 11, media interest in Islam increased, where Islam was usually portrayed in a negative way. Before 9/11, many Muslims lived the normal, everyday life. However, the attack has changed lives of many people that belonged to the Muslim community, where they were the victims of guilt. Unfortunately, many Americans were introduced to Islam, after the 9/11 attack, thus even till today, Islam is associated with terrorism. For the past ten years, Muslims felt excluded from the American society by being rifled, attacked, discriminated, checked

Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.

It answers, as far as it can, questions as “Is Islam against the West?” and “Who defines moderate Islam post 9/11?”. In one of the case studies presented in the book, the author discusses the impact of 9/11 has had on British Muslim Identity, giving an overview of the presence of British Muslims, then looks at 9/11 and the impact it has had on the British Muslim community.

September 11th holds many hard and upset feelings around the world today. The harsh actions of Muslim extremists unfortunately completely changed the way Muslims are treated, especially in the United States. These events, exacerbated islamophobia. Unfortunately, “the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, connect Muslims and Islam to terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States.” (Byng) Although it has been over a decade since the attack, many still feel racist and discriminatory attitudes towards Muslims. Muslims are the targeted minority in the United States, “the 9/11 terrorist attacks shifted the social and political context for Muslims in the United States. Terrorism within the geographical borders of the United States carried out by Muslims places an identity at the center of national and global politics.” (Byng) The blame of the horrible terrorist attacks, rather than be placed on terrorists or religious extremist, has been placed on Islam in America. After September 11th, hate crimes towards Muslims skyrocketed, “the most dramatic change noted by the report was a more than 1,600 percent increase in reported hate crimes against Muslims -- a jump from 28 hate incidents in 2000 to 481 last year.”

Islam is a very misunderstood religion by many Americans, and wanting to understand it better was why I chose Islam: A Short History to read this summer. It is written by Karen Armstrong, a religious scholar, and aims to condense 1400 years of Islam’s history into a short book. I wanted to learn about how the religion began and grew, and what the values and beliefs of Islam are and were.

Prior to reading an excerpt on Islamic theology and Islamic philosophy in the book Introduction to Islam by Carole Hillenbrand, I did not realized the tremendous effect and contributions Muslims had on the fields of theology and philosophy. According to Hillenbrand, “the term normally used for “theology” in Islam is kalam, which literally means “speech”” (Hillenbrand, 170). Similar to all religions, those following the Islamic faith would eventually be faced with opposition and questions about the teachings of Islam. Hillenbrand explained that Muhammad was not looked to as a theological figure because he merely gained his revelations from the all-knowing God, Allah; therefore, Islamic theologians would begin to emerge overtime. These Islamic theologians would engage in debates on core issues and topics that oppositioners had with the islamic faith, such as

In “A Devil’s Theory Of Islam,” Edward W. Said reviews a book by Judith Miller. In the book, Miller focuses on Islam in the Middle East, and Islam as a threat to the West. Islam since the eighth century was always known as a religion that contains violence and terror. However, Said says that the violence has mostly affected the Middle Eastern countries by dragging them down into poverty. Said says that Islam’s acts affect its citizens, and powerful Islamic countries are under the control of the United States.

In Karen Armstrong's book Islam she examines the Religious Movement. Hasan moved to Basrah where he built up a most profound sense of being founded on scorn for worldly belongings. He turned into the most well-known evangelist because of his economical lifestyle. . He started a religious change in Barsah instructing followers to study profoundly on the Quran and that likeness, soul searching and a complete surrender to God's will were the basis of genuine happiness. He started the solid Muslim custom of joining a restrained inside existence with political restriction to the

Ever since September 11, 2001 Americans along with the majority of the world’s population have been skeptical of Muslims. It’s a sad reality but it’s hard for people to think of a Muslim without linking them directly to terrorism. But these assumptions aren’t totally out of the blue—the Muslim’s religion, Islam, teaches a low tolerance for other religions and the Islamic government has no separation of church and state, so it’s only normal to assume that their government shall have a low tolerance as well—some however, immediately translate this into terrorism. Through the Islamic government and religion, relations with foreign countries, and separation amongst themselves it can be concluded that Islamic Fundamentalism is clearly a threat

Instead, from its onset, Islam spread as a conquering power and remained that way for some time. Explaining it this way, the reader gets a sense of the psychology behind Islam and why, besides being a religious task, spreading Islam is such a goal. By showing the issues Islam faces today in the context of past Islamic traditions, Lewis paints a much clearer picture of the skewed view today’s radicals have and the way they use history to manipulate. He examines influential Muslim voices like Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden, who have used history to give Islam victim status or to claim the continuance of a predecessor’s mission to not only justify terrorist activities, but also to recruit followers. He tells the history of Bin Laden’s statement referring to the “humiliation and disgrace” Islam supposedly has suffered. What Bin Laden was referring to was the defeat of the Ottoman sultanate in 1918 and the imperial presence of Westerners on sacred Muslim lands. Lewis explains the offense many Muslims take to the desecration of their holy lands by foreigners. He describes how the discovery and exploitation of oil in the Holy Land of the Hijaz has exacerbated the growing resentment many Muslims

In the days after September 11, 2001, American leaders rushed to portray Islam as a peaceful religion that had been "hijacked" by a fanatical band of terrorists. One hopes that these assurances were merely tactical—that nobody was meant to believe them and that they were meant to assure the Muslim world that the inevitable American

In the past decade, especially the last two years, the rise of Islamophobia has affected the lives of many Muslims living in Western countries. Islamophobia by nature is racist, it makes general assumptions of a large group of people who share a common belief system. Making any generalization of the followers of Islam or of Islam itself, will oversimplify what is a diverse and complex global religious tradition. Yet western converts to Islam are often met with incomprehension, a white Muslim does not fit in with most people’s association of Islam with foreignness. It is necessary to remove the ‘otherness’ of Muslims, and for the West to promote education as a way to foster inter-cultural and inter-religious understanding.

There is a current obsession in western media, (during the last decade) pertaining to “Islam and the West”. This current obsession is filled with negative signifiers with the global media’s predominantly negative, and to an extent racist portrayal of Islam and Muslims. Muslims are generally represented as violent, fanatical, bigoted, or as extremists and terrorists. Media coverage of Islam-related issues has changed drastically since the start of the new millennium, both in quantity and quality. The events the of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, cast Islam into the forefront of global media: not only did coverage of Islam rapidly increase, particularly in news and entertainment media, but the way in which Islam was represented by the media changed as well. The most prevalent Islamic stereotype in western media is the radicalized Muslim insurgent, firm on waging jihad, or holy war, against the Western world. This stereotype usually depicts violence as an inseparable part of being Muslim, as well as the religion being a justifier for the violent actions.

Islam is probably the most misunderstood and misinterpreted religion in the world. This misfortune can be traced back to the day of crusades when Islam was portrayed as a barbaric and pagan religion in the western society. Unfortunately, this misconception prevailed in the western society and hence Islam became to be associated with various misconceptions, false stories, and biased accounts that became part of scholarly articles and "authentic" histories.