The Progressive View of Islam - Essay Example

THE PROGRESSIVE VIEW OF ISLAM affiliation Introduction Nowadays Islam as a religion, is still moderately unknown among western nations that is why is forcefully brought into the public domain because of the threats emanating from the “Islamic terrorists”. Therefore, the question that lingers into many people’s mind is; “what is wrong whit this religion”? Most of the Islamic states are supported by the western governments which main aim is to trade oil in exchange with the military hardware and western technology. Continued western influence on Islamic states that are pro-western nations paved way to an emergency of conservative Islamic values that are now changing faces every day. To the conservative most of the western lifestyle seems to be athreat to their religion and Islamic community as a whole. Majority of these Islamic statesexperience increased inflation, corruption, high unemployment rate, violation of human rights, political restrictions that influenced the revival of Islam as well as radicals or extremists and militant Islam. The contributing factor to this rise is attributed to the Islamic revolution which led by Khomeini in 1979, the Palestinian situation, soviet Union occupation in Afghanistan and the influence of Saddam Hussein of Iraq. It has now become very difficult for Muslim nowadays to reject westernization as it is one way of embracing modernity in different areas like medicine and technology although majority of the Muslim today have no resistance to adopt new development in science and technology since their modern forms had already taken place during the industrial west.A lot ofMuslims today travel to western countries daily on various reasons, they take along with them their religion, values as well as cultural believes butonce they settle in those countries, inevitably adopt and at the same time conform to the ways of life, customs, western patterns and culture in varying degrees. With the idea of free marketplace in United States, religion is unsettling and it looks like a threat to some individuals, particularly immigrants who originates from the Islamic world. In United States and other western countries all Muslim enjoy their religious freedoms just like any other religions, though this does not depict that theirIslamic life is simple. For instance, Muslims habitually experience Christian proselytization movements that make their life difficult. This makes Muslims extremely unsettling with continual stress, countries which are under Islamic rule rarely or none at all will this kind of proselytization happen to non-Muslim religions or among Muslims. In these countries only Muslims are allowed to preach in public and at the same time seek converts, some of this countries includes Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. They have special legal safeguardespecially for religious minority who are under the sharia law, although there are some restrictions which dates back from the early Islamic history.It is clear that the freedom enjoyed by the Christian evangelists in most of the secular states is the same freedom most Muslim missionaries can negotiate to have a voice in the free religious marketplace. It is ordinary in North America for the Muslims to welcom converts to come and join their community contrary to other parts of the world. There is a negative view and hurtful things that has been labeled against Muslims in America and elsewhere in the world, this includes abusive treatment, insults and violent assaults against Muslims in United States and Europe while some individual are advocating for the expulsion of Muslims, Arabs or anybody who resemble them back to their countries of origin. At the same time, there are positive campaigns by some individuals whore are advocating for the protection of Muslim, protect them and reassure all Muslims and Arabs in United States of their worth, human dignity and free rights as American citizens. Nowadays, there are huge numbers of Muslims who have decided to settle and live in many western countries as they run their daily businesses, they prosper and contribute to those economies regardless of their faith, for instance, Europe, Australia and America has huge Muslim community, France alone in 2004 had more than 10% of Muslim community while America had between 6 million to 7 million population of Muslims. Large numbers of Muslims in United States comprises of converts and immigrants as well as diverse racial composition and ethnic groups, they includes, African American, whites, those from South Asia, mixed middle eastern and many more. Western countries provide a very convenient environment for Muslims to enjoy immense freedom which in turn has provided a cover for any possible radical development associated with religious activism or terrorist activities. From the time Al-Qaeda’s attacked the United States in September 11, 2001, the world changed forever. Many countries especially in the west increased their surveillance and intelligence on every activity from mosques to sleeper cells. However, Muslims residing in western countries have now positively adapted to the western ways of leaving and are now participating in the national building of their economies. Not only Islamic extremism seems to be a threat to freedom in the western nations or the Islamic states. The price leveled for freedom is considerable, therefore, the threat that come along can emanate from any direction with unspecified sources not only religious zealotry of the origin. Islam today has a lot of challenges that is facing than never before that which emanates from within its circles and the one that come from all over the world, the more crucial problems comes from the fundamental tension piling from within Islam, the negative attitudes and regular criticism from the outside world ought to be ignored and regarded as misguided but the tension that emanates from within Islam globally must be confronted by all measure possible, Islam must conform to the changing times and have good grips within its operations. Instead of promoting equitable lifestyle and the one that is productive material life, overwhelming number of Muslims experience very low living standards that is an imaginable and exploitation of foreign workers which reflect am irony of the wealthy oil-producing states of Muslims where brotherhood is preached daily while the governments spends billions of dollars on military technology. The government needs to focus its efforts on reducing unemployment, exploitation and unbalanced development among many issues and ummah to lead the social change including huge imbalances in the Muslim community The international investments in Islamic states is very slow compared to other countries on development arena due to the scare caused by the rising number of extremist agitations which affect the western perception on Islamic legal proscriptions on investment interests while many Muslim investors feel very happy when they send their money for investment to non-Muslim economies where huge profits are realized while the social and political status is favorable In the growing secular world, the emphasis of secular and more considered ideology of politics takes root popularly in the western world than Muslim world for instance Turkey and Egypt the perceived general welfare is not so bad and it appears to have some freedom for its citizens about their believes, huge number of the Muslims are controlled by their governments and monitored daily. But for the case of Egypt and Turkey they have adapted western model which embrace modern politics and structured social systems mixed with Islam characters (Denny, 2011, pp. 366-371).  Conclusion Political Islam is under attack because of its rhetoric massage to survive, although Muslim societies should take the share of responsibility of poor performance but not to blame western countries, the same way Muslim minorities have the mandate to call out to their rulers and governments in order to control the extreme characters within Islam community, for instance, Pakistan and Bangladesh is a good demonstration that illustrates the bad side of separatism if allowed to take root. Religious homogeneity is not an option in establishing a peaceful society compared to ethnic homogeneity that was tried out by Bosnian Serbs. The ongoing spread of Islamic extremists or terrorists that is witnessed among the emerging Muslim countries in central Asia, western states as well as Africa has to be suppressed and the growing legitimate demands echoed by the minority Muslims must be put into consideration by the responsible government. Reference Denny, F. (2011). An Introduction to Islam(4th edition ed., pp. 366-371). Prentice Hall. Read More