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| Generalising the Islamic Label Abdul Rahman Al Rashed Editor-in-chief, Asharq Al-Awsat, Muslims are in a difficult position because
of the inability of others to distinguish the difference between various
Muslim groups. Approximately one sixth of the world population lives in 40
Muslim countries. The total Muslim population is estimated at one billion.
It would not be accurate to classify all these people simply as Muslim or
Islamic. Despite their ethnic diversity, differing nationalities and
languages as well as geographical distance, Muslims are wrongly seen as
one and the same entity. Omar Abdul Rahman and his followers in the
United States, the Algerian butchers, Abu Hamza and Shankarah, Bin Laden,
the Dagestan fighters, six groups of Afghan fighters, warring groups in
Somalia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Central Asia are all called Muslim or
Islamic groups. The world is full of struggles, clashes and
disputes. These occur in countries where the Muslim population is the
majority just as in countries where the majority are Christian or
Buddhist. The violence in Muslim countries is related to internal
problems; their struggles are not over any religious issue. In Dagestan,
the fighters are being called Muslim rebels though they are not fighting
for an Islamic issue. In Afghanistan there are at least six groups
fighting for control of the country. Their fighting has nothing to do with
Islam; they fight among themselves because they are hostile to one another
but still, they are portrayed as fighters for Islam. One wonders why in other countries where
the involved parties are Christian, Buddhist or Hindu, the fighters are
not identified by a religious label. The fighters in Ireland are not
called Christian though those who are involved in the dispute are all
Christian. Nor do we view the struggles in Ethiopia or Korea from a
religious base. On the other hand, if the fighter or issue is related to a
country with a Muslim majority or a group containing Muslims, they will be
identified as Islamic or Muslim. This is bad for the image of Islam and
gives an incorrect idea of the religion. Earlier the term 'Islamist' was
used to describe certain partisans of the Iranian revolution. Eventually
the term was extended to mean anything related to Muslim countries. Later,
unfortunately, the word Muslim itself began to be associated in the
Western media with kidnapping, bloodshed and terrorism. When Afghans began to fight the Soviets who
were occupying their country, the word regained its positive connotation
to some extent. Later when areas of rebellious activities increased in
Muslim countries, the label was fixed on all such negative activities in
these countries. When the war broke out in Bosnia six years ago, Bosnians
were called Muslims in the media though Croats and Serbs were not called
Christians. Source: Some interesting responses to this article: R Chamberlain, Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A. Will Collum, Columbia, SC, U.S.A. Lucas Castor, Muncie, U.S.A. Deborah Goodwin, Jacksonville, North
Carolina, U.S.A Philip Murphy, Brussels, Belgium |