Islam, the West, and Ethnonationalism

Abstract

Western analysis, due to its dangerous oversimplification of Islam and other matters in the Muslim world, has traditionally seen the appearance of any indigenous movement calling for change and improvement in the name of Islam as a major threat. Muslims continue to be viewed in the stereotypical perspective of the “us-against-them” syndrome, a practice which prevents a proper comprehension of the dynamics and dilemmas faced by Muslims in the postcolonial era. The Western media and, to some extent, academia thrive on such themes as minority rights, nuclear proliferation, human rights, and democracy, which they use as barometers. Based on the data which they collect, they then pass sweeping decrees about Muslim countries. Internal diversity and conflict receive a great deal of attention, whereas human achievements and civilizational artifacts are considered as “foreign” to the Muslim ethos. Islam as a religion is reduced to so-called “fundamentalism” and a mere puritanical and/or coercive theological orthodoxy. Moreover, no distinction is made between Islam as a religion and Muslim cultures and societies, nor between Muslim aspirations for unity and the realities of national and ethnic differentiation. The result is a Western view which both distorts and demonizes a large part of the Muslim world. As if this were not enough, Muslims in the post-Cold War era are now being presented and “imagined” as the next enemy. Among the factors responsible for this are a) the multiple nature of the Muslim world, given its geostrategic location right next to Europe; b) Islam as the second major religion in the West; and c) the assertion of a new generation of Muslim expatriate communities at a time ...