The current economic crisis and the ignorance of some Western scholars are fueling prejudices against Islam, participants said at a conference in Poland Friday.
The daylong conference in the western Polish city of Wroclaw considered the media portrayal of Islam, attitudes toward Muslim immigrants in France and the perception of Muslims in the former Soviet Union.
Imam Ali Abi Issa, of Wroclaw’s mosque, said some Western scholars are fueling Islamophobia by studying Islamic texts without looking at historical or cultural contexts.
Count (elective King) John Sobieski of Poland led an army to the successful defense of Vienna, Austria in 1683 against Muslim Turks and stopped that Muslim attempt at invading Europe ‘dead in its tracks.’ That was 327 years ago.
Many Muslims look at their history of Muslim victories and defeats as events of the recent past while non-Muslims tend to look at events that occurred 8 to 10 generations back into the past as events of war occurring almost at ‘the dawn of time.’
So when “Imam Ali Abi Issa, of Wroclaw’s mosque, said some Western scholars are fueling Islamophobia by studying Islamic texts without looking at historical or cultural contexts.,” where is his mind?
Or more appropriately, the question should be,
“How much of Imam Ali Abi Issa’s focus, and the focus of the other Muslims at the conference, is on the problems of the present and how much of their focus is on the past?”
9/11, Bali, Madrid, London, &c &c &c… these are the things fueling animus toward Islam. It is really that simple. It didn’t start with the first WTC bombing, because that seemed eccentric. 9/11 and following made Islam a stink in many nostrils around the world. Folks can come up with all the conferences they want, and it won’t change that reality. It will simply portray the Western elites as useful idiots at best or cowardly traitors at worst.
Please name one place where islam intersects the civilised world where muslims are [i]not[/i] attacking those different from themselves.
The silence of alleged ‘moderate’ muslims, around the world, is remarkable. It is either terror or complicity, and in either case it fully vindicates a virulent distrust of muslims and all things islamic, barring convincing evidence of behaviour (not words) to the contrary.
One muslim I know around here cautioned Americans to be careful, lest muslims begin random attacks against ordinary people. I looked him straight in the eye and said “Before you start to play ‘cowboys and muslims’ you might want to ask the Pawnee, Sioux and Apache how that worked out for them last time.”
What stubborn, pointless, and ultimately counter-productive religious militantism.
The term “Islamophobia” should be dropped entirely. It’s propaganda, not serious discussion.
[url=http://www.yourtango.com/proconnect/201083954/16-unexpected-health-beauty-benefits-sex]Bombing in Sweden[/url]. Manifesto in Arabic. Upset about cartoons of Mohammed.
What was that, five years ago? And who has kissed muslim backside more than the Swedes. Works real well, doesn’t it.