Is Islam the Enemy of the West - Essay Example

It is radical Muslims who give Islam a bad name in the West. The handful of Muslim radicals that exist in America has caused typical Americans to begin viewing Islam as the enemy of the West when nothing could be further from the truth. Through factual research, I am looking forward to dispelling the misconception that Islam is the enemy of the West. I will look into the reasons that these misconceptions came about and try to explain the reasons why Islam is most certainly not the enemy of the West.

          To begin with, Americans themselves chose to perpetuate the misconception about how other Islam followers truly view the United States. People such as Lieutenant Colonel named Matthew A. Dooley have chosen to tell his military troops that;

          Islam has already declared war on the West” and that hundreds of millions of Muslims “[b]y their own stated doctrine…are motivated and unified under one ideology and one goal. They hate everything you stand for, and will never coexist unless you submit (Stoakes, Emanuel “Islam is Not “the Enemy” -- Irrational Hatred Is)

          It is quite difficult for me to understand how a representative of the United State military could choose to perpetuate such a stereotype of Muslims when the American military has always been viewed as one of the most tolerant armed forces on the planet whose sole mission in life is to bridge the misunderstandings between warring factions in order to bring peace to the region.

          Perhaps it is because Islam has always been the less understood religion among all the religions in the world that people tend to believe the worst things about its religious beliefs and practices which have caused misconception about what the religion truly stands for. Things got even worse for the practitioners of the religion who live in America after the Twin Tower attacks because news media outlets heavily promoted the anti-American sentiment that supposedly accompanies Islam. Those who insist that Islam is the enemy say that is so because Americans should not break bread with people whose beliefs have chosen to “violate the American values of pluralism and tolerance.” (Talbot, Matt “Islam is Not the Enemy”) This is not a topic that should be seen and argued by its practitioners as a clash of cultures and values.

          It was Wayne Palmer who tried to explain the reality behind the belief that Islam is the enemy of the best by saying that “American Muslims are our best allies in this war against Islamic terrorism.” (Pastore, Frank “Islam is Not the Enemy!) The main problem is that the United States, as a country has a problem differentiating between the true teachings of Islam and the distorted point of view that radical Muslims choose to promote in the name of their version of Islam. Should the Americans only bother to truly understand the underlying basis of Islam, and accept the fact that Islam followers and those of Jewish and other religious faiths have peacefully lived side by side in the Middle East for more than a millennia, Americans will truly see that Islam -- the religion, is not the enemy of the west.

          Radical Muslims have become the face of Islam across the world, but just like other religions, their belief in Islam is not the only interpretation of the Quran. Rather, theirs is only the one that has become largely viewed as the true Islam faith because of the way that these people choose to distort the words of Mohammed in their quest to find a solid basis for their ill actions.

          Every time America says that “Islam is the enemy”, those who utter those words choose to lump the few bad but very noisy radical Muslims with those of the peace-loving variety. Something that is truly unfair to those who practice the true peaceful teachings of their Middle Eastern religion. America used to be a nation of people who chose to get into the nitty gritty of issues before taking sides or making bold declarations. That is no longer the case with the way that Islam is treated as both a religion and a way of life in the country. It has openly declared that Muslims are not welcome to become a part of our society and culture because we shun them because of a few radical followers who choose to “legitimize an immoral act in the name of (your) religion”.  (Talbot, Matt “Islam is Not the Enemy”)

          The United States has chosen to make Islam the enemy on our shores by not treating these people fairly and instead, choosing the belief that they are among the worst people to ever walk the planet. Thus proving that Islam is not the enemy, but America is working hard to turn the religion and its true, traditional followers into one.