Islam through Western Eyes - Literature review Example

Critical Commentary Roll No: Teacher: 24th January 2009 Critical Commentary At the same time that religion in the west was becoming less political, its secular nationalism was becoming more religious... The nineteenth century saw the fulfillment of Tocquevilles prophecy that the strange religion" of secular nationalism would, "like Islam, overrun the whole world with its apostles, militants and martyrs." it spread throughout the world with an almost missionary zeal and was shipped to the newly colonialism. It became the ideological partner of what came to be known as nation building. As the colonizing government provided their colonies with the political and economic infrastructures to turn territories into nation-state, the ideology of secular nationalism emerged as a byproduct. as it had in the west during previous centuries, secular nationalism in colonized countries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries came to represent one side of a great encounter between two vastly different ways of perceiving the sociopolitical order and the relationship of the individual to the state: one informed by religion, the other by a notion of a secular compact (15). In the passage stated above, the writer highlights the idea of the Western World related to religion. The society of western world that was considered deeply political because of the religions there was growing less political with the passage of time. There was a time in time when there were governments with religious political views. The Protestants and Catholics were strongly against each other and they were involved in taking aggressively actions each other and this aggression was not only on the common man’s extent but on governmental and political level also. With the passage of time, the religion adopted by the western world was somewhat separated from the political system of the government and in its place, the secular nationalism came to the forefront and took the place of religion. For the western world, it is now secular nationalism that is considered the religion of western society. Tocqueville gave a prophecy that a strange religion like Islam will be able to overrun the world with its apostles, militants and martyrs which means that the western world and the rest of the world will be infested by Islam. The western world is under the threat of Islam as stated by Edward Said in “Islam through Western Eyes” (1980). Islam as a secular nationalism will spread with a missionary zeal and a new colonial era will be started. According to the writer, nineteenth century gave the results that were expected according to the prophecy of Tocqueville. Islam is seen as a new secular nationalism that has come up with its apostles, martyrs and militants. This is regarded as resurgence of Islam by the Western world. According to the western world, Islam is a threat to the western world and its policies and has come up again by a revival and the followers of Islam can be categorized as terrorists because they are here to end the civilization and the success that man has made till now (Said 1980). The western colonizers taught the colonized states about the political and economic infrastructures and in this teaching process, the concept of secular nationalism also came to the forefront. The colonized states most of which are Islamic states were tried to be made westernized by all the efforts that were done. The colonized states were not taught modernism or advancement but ways to be westernized. The territories of the Muslim world were turned into nations (Said 1980) and due to their turning to the concept of secular nationalism; there was divisions in the consideration of the individual and the state. On one side there was religion while on the other side, there was national identity in form of secular compact. The world is moving towards a new colonialism. The threat that is faced by the west considering the Islamic world becomes clearer when an erroneous image of Islam is indicated in the media, which becomes the need of nearly all parts of the world due to the boost in technology. Through media, the image of Islam is monitored as anti-human, anti-democratic and anti-rational (Said 1980). All these concepts lead towards the conception that West considers Islam as a threat to its structured world. Secular nationalism is a concept given by the western world and this concept was adopted by the colonized states to a great extent. According to Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad (2005), “Secularity is compatible with Islamic law only if it is understood as a separation of authority between the rulers and the religious establishment” which means that Islamic law can be secular if the authority of religious establishments and the government are kept apart. The secular nationalism as stated in the paragraph means a separate national identity. Religious identity connects the whole Muslim world to one another while national identity is concerned only with the country to which, people belong. Yildirim (2009) informs that Muslim society and Muslims are democratic people and believe in democracy. There are cultural differences between the Muslim World and the Western world and these cultural differences cannot be regarded as a source of threat for the Western world. By considering the Muslim World as a threat to Western world and their designed civilization, the Western world is busy in taking unjustified actions against the Muslim world. The image of Islam as portrayed on media is not a real image of Islam. The fact cannot be denied that bad and good people can be found in any state of society but the association of bad Muslims to the whole Muslim community and their representation as the representation of Islam is wholly wrong and unjustified (Said 1980). There can be good or bad people in all the religions that exercise religion for their own benefits and try to adopt and exaggerate what seems applicable to them. According to Rousseau (2009), the nations are divided not on the basis of religions but the conceptions kept by the governments. Therefore, there can be contrasting differences between secular nationalism and Islam as a religion. Islam cannot be considered as a religion with keeping track of secular nationalism. It is a spiritual religion and needs to be followed. With secular nationalism, people are able to get their national identities, not religious identities. The consideration by Juergensmeyer that Islam will colonize the world such as the westerners did is a wrong conception and the Western world with its threat of Islam is mistreating the countries and states that follow Islam. The western world has taken refuge of secular nationalism and also has given the Muslim world this conception by colonizing the Muslim countries in the past. According to Rousseau (2009), the people can be made to leave their values and religious customs when they are enslaved by any other nation. He also informs that except this, there is no other way to take away the values, culture and religious customs of a nation. Most of the Muslim world was colonized and enslaved by the Western World due to which, there was a new concept of secular nationalism. Secular nationalism that is a western concept divided the Muslim identity into national identity and religious identity. Islam is considered a threat by western world due to which, the concepts of secular nationalism are attached to this part of the world. Along with the concepts of secular nationalism, the concepts of fundamentalism and extremism are also attached to Islam and its followers. The western portrayed image of Islam appears as a terrorist nation ready to overrun the whole world. As Juergensmeyer has said that Islam will overrun the whole world with its apostles, martyrs and militants, this is totally wrong. Again a wrong concept regarding Islam is given by Juergensmeyer in which, he identifies that Islam will become a threat to western world with its secular nationalism. Works Cited Ahmad, Imad-ad-Dean. Reconciling Secular Government with Islamic Law. The 6th Annual Conference of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy: DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT—Challenges for the Islamic World, 2005. Retrieved on 23rd January 2009 from http://www.minaret.org/Secular%20Government.pdf Allal, Tewfik and Bardet, Brigitte. A secular Muslim Manifesto. 2004. Retrieved on 23rd January 2009 from http://www.iheu.org/node/1172 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract and the Principles of Political Right (1762), Book IV, 8. Civil Religion. Spring 1, 2009: 7-10. Said, Edward. Islam through Western Eyes. The Nation, 1980. Spring 1, 2009:1-7. Yildirim, A. Kadir. Political Islam, Secular Elite and Democracy in the Middle East. 2009. Retrieved on 23rd January 2009 from http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=163526 Read More