ARE MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS STILL FIGHTING A CRUSADE?

What critics ignore is that extreme individuals are not unique among the Muslims. Seldom do we associate the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to its Catholic roots. 

Ahmadiyya Times | News Desk | Articles
Source: St. Louis Islam Examiner | December 10, 2009
By Basiyr Rodeny | St. Louis, MO

My article Is Islam really a threat to America has garnered much attention. This is evidence of the fact that In the West it appears that we are still fighting the crusades of the 11th century. In mass media and society we do not see Muslims as individual human beings with nuances in thought, beliefs and actions. Furthermore we see Islam through the lens of our forefathers who fought these crusades. As a result we continue to hold the view that propensity to violence, disorder and hate is the norm among Muslims. Through our labels and our lenses we perpetuate the view that the "moderate Muslim" is the "needle in the haystack".

Islamic distinctions
We make no effort to understand that even among Muslims there is wide sectarianism. In fact Muslims lay claim to more than 70 different groups! Most of us only speak narrowly of Sunni and Shia differences. We make little effort to uncover what groups are responsible for what acts and that no single voice speaks for the entire Islamic world.

Extremism not "Islamic"
What critics ignore is that extreme individuals are not unique among the Muslims. Seldom do we associate the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to its Catholic roots. In fact if we conduct a Google search for Christian extremist or "Christianist" we will find unsurprisingly that (a) these terms are not used to describe all Christians and (b) that these terms are rarely used to explain the behavior of even religiously motivated Christian groups. We almost never use the term "moderate Christians". What we recognize is that all Christians (a) do not think alike, (b) do not believe the same thing (although they all read the Bible), and (c) belong to different denominations.

Fringe beliefs
When we as a society speak of Christians that commit some violent act we are quick to label them as "deranged". Moreover we go through great pains to identify them as a fringe or splinter group of the greater body of Christianity.

Islam as a religion is no more homogeneous than other faiths. We should end fear mongering and narrow thinking by clarifying our knowledge about Islam. The crusades ended a long time ago. Those who fought in them died a long time ago. Let us not bring their fight into the 21st century. When any heinous acts are committed by a bigoted person regardless of his or her faith, lay the blame squarely at the feet of such deranged persons or on the fringe groups to which such acts belong.

Read more: Are Muslims and Christians still fighting a crusade?
 

Basiyr Rodney is a faculty member in the School of Education at Webster University in St. Louis, MO. Basiyr speaks locally and nationally on Islamic subjects in school and college forums, as well as at interfaith gatherings. His advocacy is based on the Islamic maxim, "love for all, hatred for none," aimed at fostering mutual harmony, tolerance, and cross-cultural understanding among diverse individuals.