'The Crisis Of Islam' By Bernard Lewis

“Fight in the name of God and in the ‘path of god’. Combat those who disbelieve in God.” The quote above is an excerpt from Matthew Gordon’s book, “The Rise of Islam”. Throughout the course of history, many religions have had a profound effect on western civilization. During the early 5th century a religion arose that had an extremely important impact on western civilization. The Arabic prophet Muhammad founded the religion known today as Islam. Violence, diplomacy, Arabic tradition, and public law played a vital role in the rise and conquest of Islam. These four key elements that fostered the rise of Islam helped establish one of the largest religions in western civilization.

Wright has a special way of explaining things. When reading this book, a reader need not have a background knowledge on terrorism, Wright crafts the book in such a way that it consists of a ten page list of the main characters, fifty pages of notes, a list of interviews held, a bibliography and a clear bibliography for those who would love research the topic more. He also

Terror attacks committed by Islamic extremists resulted in the dehumanization towards the Muslim community and gave rise to a Muslim terrorist frame. From the images media portrayed of

The differences in the relationship of politics and religion between Christianity and Islam, Kupchan states are, “Christianity is a religion of faith, not law. It’s central focus is faith. In contrast, Islam is a religion of faith and law, with no difference in sacred and state” (page 48).

Christianity and Islam are wide spread religions which impact the lives of believers spiritually. Both religions have had substantial impact on the course of history and have formed the basis of many countries laws and are highly recognized by governments. Though Christianity is more widely known, they both pose the same challenges to each other. Considering the similarities and differences of Christianity and Islam, it can be said they are both very different.

The topic of peace has been on the mind of historians, political leaders, and the general public for as long as our history has been recorded. Will there ever be peace in the Middle East? Will the age old battles, both foreign and domestic ever end? This question, pondered on throughout decades of Western civilization, has both a simple answer and a complex reasoning. To even begin to uncover the answer, one must understand the conflict and its deeply rooted origins to even draw a hypothesis of the outcome. We must first venture into the guarded minds of radical Muslims, our coalition forces, and the minds of the non-violent Muslims who seek liberation from the grip of evil. We must delve into the history of the Islamic world, the tales of

Bangladesh is considering its decision to formally keep Islam as the country's official religion or to revert back to its pre-1988 secular status.

Islam is the world's fastest growing faith. It all began in 610 C.E. when the Prophet Muhammad received revelations of the Quran in Mecca. Islam's reputation of promoting a strict and controlling government, female oppression, civil war, and terrorism is not completely correct. Islam is a rich and complex religion that is often misunderstood in the modern world. There have been many obstacles that have been faced. Islam wouldn't exist today with its leaders, the Crusades, and their empires.

Additionally, to understand terrorism, we must understand the motivations. In the 21st century, it is fair to say that many organisations are religiously and politically motivated. Which are primary observations from the film as well, however what is also manifested in the storyline is the idea of personal vendettas or struggles, honour and the need for recognition. What I have learnt this semester is that along with the interpretations of Islam, there are many diverse people, who are then motivated differently. In week 3 for example one of the readings discussed child radicalisation, and most definitely these children are

Even though Islam is a religion that does not seek to promote violence among its followers, terrorist leaders have managed to manipulate the interpretations of Islam and other religions for their own benefit (Khan, 2012). Terrorist leaders modify the interpretations in way in which the tasks within the personal agenda of the terrorist leaders will be accomplished. When terrorist leaders modify the religious interpretations, they mainly seek to make violent acts appear justifiable by their religion so that the members and supporters of the terrorist organization can gain the valor and motivation they need to commit terrorist attacks against the enemies of the terrorist leaders (Khan, 2012).

Today, word of “Islam” connected with more terrorism and violence. Here, article “Islam” by Vincent J O’Malley explains about what is Islam in real sense. According to O’Malley, connection between world second largest religion Islam and terrorism makes very different and negative scenario towards Islam religion in the world population. He explained Islam through different question related religion and philosophy in the article. He started with Muhammad’s life and his background with first question. According to O’Malley, Muhammad was born in 570 in the area of Arabian Peninsula at Mecca. Muhammad was raised by grandfather in the begging and, after he was taken by his paternal uncle. He also describe about Muhammad personal life that he was married with Khadija while he was 25 years old. After first question about Muhammad’s personal life, he moved to the next question of Muhammad’s religious insight. In the begging Muhammad was believed in polytheism but latter on changed with monotheism. According to O’Malley, monotheism means “there is no god but God”. He also explain, Muhammad was borrowed some stuff from the Christianity and Judaism to develop his own religion. Muhammad included some old and New Testament from the Christianity regarding Jesus, Mary and John. After discussing about Muhammad’s religion, Writer O’Malley moved to next question about begin of Muslims calendar. So, the whole idea about beginning of Muslim calendar has explain about beginning of Islam religion.

The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror is a book written by Bernard Lewis that ‘in particular charts the key events of the twentieth century leading up to the violent confrontations of today.’(Lewis) Lewis clearly and entirely pointed out key events explaining the choices to be made by the people of the Islamic faith. They must determine whether their religion takes its place alongside other religions in a global community, or whether it will revert back into conflict with non-Muslim nations.

Islamic tradition states that the Ka’bah in Mecca is the first house of all humankind, originally constructed by Adam. Convention says a cloud overhead of Mecca shadowed the outlines of the temple, telling Adam the exact perimeter of the structure and where to build. The Ka’bah, was then destroyed by the legendary flood of Noah and later rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ishmael under God’s direction.6 However the true significance of the Ka’bah was not realized until the Prophet Muhammad recognized its great meaning for his new religion. To Muslims, history that occurred before the creation of Islam is known as “The Age of Ignorance”1, which was the time before Muhammad received the word of God through an encounter with the angel Gabriel. Initially Muhammad believed what he went through with Gabriel could not have been real, but his wife convinces him that what

Islamic rule spread over major areas of Africa, the Middle East, South, Southeast and Central Asia, Spain, and Southern Italy. Many Christians saw Islam as a religion of the sword. They have been very violent throughout their history. Arabian armies engaged in attacking the remnants of the Byzantine Empire. The First Crusade was launched in order to stop the Arabian invaders.

After the attack of 9/11 many American citizens sought out an answer to why one would hijack a plane and run it into the Twin Towers, killing millions. According to the Huffpost, Islam became the main reason for the attack and furthermore labeled religion as the inspiration for many terroristic attacks (Gibson, 1). According to many Muslims, however, the attacks are anti-Islamic because the Quran states not to harm civilians who are not involved with war and to avoid it at all possible times (PBS, 3). The conflict between Muslims and Americans is growing and many issues in the Middle East has become the focus for religious terrorism.