Islamic religion and culture - Admission/Application Essay Example

At this critical juncture in Islamic history, what issues should be explored by Muslims to bring about change in the 21st century? Accordingly, is the Islamic world in a clash of civilizations with the Western world? Seeking to address these questions and many more as they pertain to Islam in the new millennium, the following aims to provide a complete and concise analysis of Islam today. We now turn to a brief introduction to the faith and the important challenges that it faces today (Huntington 2005).

A variety of theoretical paradigms have grown out of the Middle East in recent times and Islamism is a political theory, which seeks to address the particular concerns facing the Arab world. Islam began in the Middle East around 600 A.D. and was shepherded into this world by the Prophet Mohammad. Seeking to address the plight of the people of the Middle East around the seventh century A.D. and growing out of Judaism and Christianity, Islam has now become a world religion with more than 1 billion adherents worldwide.

Islamism is an ideology, which stresses Islam as a guiding political force. Islamism has frequently come into conflict with secular ideologies and regimes, including in Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian territories. Islamism has been tied to violence and terrorism and remains an important threat to the stability of the region. The present power in the semi-autonomous Gaza Strip Hamas, self-identifies as an Islamist organization (Khater 2004). The Muslim resurgence in the past sixty years has been caused by numerous factors including persistent underdevelopment in the Middle East, a legacy of authoritarian rule and rising expectations in a global world.

The West has many difficulties with Islam and many in the Western world, before 9/11 as well as after, have little understanding the faith and subsequently of