3/16/2013, 10:38 pm
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Is Islam Incompatible with Western Values?
WRITTEN BY GÖNENÇ ÜNALDI, GUEST CONTRIBUTOR |30 JANUARY 2013
After September 11, 2001 attacks, the Western world have encountered a new challenge: a conflict more difficult to overcome than fighting against Communism, and an ideology, in the minds of many people, more dangerous than Soviet Russia. There was a new threat in the world, and it was called "Islam."Actually Islam has existed for about 1400 years, covering a geography that includes the Middle East, Central Asia, Northern Africa, and most parts of Southeast Asia. Mulsim immigrants were always entering the West, but they had their own way of living, and many who did not integrate well were isolated from society.
After September 11th, Westerners have started to suspect the motives and intentions of these generally silent and introverted people. Were they harmless people just trying to survive in a different society, or were they a new threat for peace, tolerance, democracy, and human rights in the Western hemisphere?
Soon, politicians and the media focused on this issue, and many reached the conclusion that “Islam was not only a religion, but it is also an ideology aimed to spread around the world, penetrate in every society, and transform them into a new form which was not democratic and peaceful”.
The overall opinion of an average Westerner about Islam is mostly negative. The religion is seen as an anti-democratic, oppressive, primitive kind of belief system, which gives no room to personal freedoms and human rights. Unfortunately, even though the sources of information are not very reliable compared to most in our era, this image, somehow, is believed to reflect the general truth about Islam and its political motivations.
Because of this negative image, many countries have established new prohibitions on fundamentalist versions of Islam. For example in April 2011, France banned wearing theburqa (a black cloth covering a woman's whole body) in the streets. Even though this ban is itself anti-democratic, it is hard to deny that most women wear burqas not because they want to, but because they are told to do by their husbands, fathers, or brothers. This is a both psychological and physical pressure that exists throughout a woman's entire life.....
More here: https://www.diplomaticourier.com/news/opinion/1333
Is Islam Incompatible with Western Values?
WRITTEN BY GÖNENÇ ÜNALDI, GUEST CONTRIBUTOR |30 JANUARY 2013
After September 11, 2001 attacks, the Western world have encountered a new challenge: a conflict more difficult to overcome than fighting against Communism, and an ideology, in the minds of many people, more dangerous than Soviet Russia. There was a new threat in the world, and it was called "Islam."Actually Islam has existed for about 1400 years, covering a geography that includes the Middle East, Central Asia, Northern Africa, and most parts of Southeast Asia. Mulsim immigrants were always entering the West, but they had their own way of living, and many who did not integrate well were isolated from society.
After September 11th, Westerners have started to suspect the motives and intentions of these generally silent and introverted people. Were they harmless people just trying to survive in a different society, or were they a new threat for peace, tolerance, democracy, and human rights in the Western hemisphere?
Soon, politicians and the media focused on this issue, and many reached the conclusion that “Islam was not only a religion, but it is also an ideology aimed to spread around the world, penetrate in every society, and transform them into a new form which was not democratic and peaceful”.
The overall opinion of an average Westerner about Islam is mostly negative. The religion is seen as an anti-democratic, oppressive, primitive kind of belief system, which gives no room to personal freedoms and human rights. Unfortunately, even though the sources of information are not very reliable compared to most in our era, this image, somehow, is believed to reflect the general truth about Islam and its political motivations.
Because of this negative image, many countries have established new prohibitions on fundamentalist versions of Islam. For example in April 2011, France banned wearing theburqa (a black cloth covering a woman's whole body) in the streets. Even though this ban is itself anti-democratic, it is hard to deny that most women wear burqas not because they want to, but because they are told to do by their husbands, fathers, or brothers. This is a both psychological and physical pressure that exists throughout a woman's entire life.....
More here: https://www.diplomaticourier.com/news/opinion/1333
