When I started writing this book toward the end of 2002, Islam was already under attack by many non-Muslims of Jewish and Christian religions following the horrendous tragedy of September 11, 2001. As time went by the assaults on Islam grew in intensity as the Muslims were subjected to indignities and their places of worship became targets of physical attacks. As it transpired later, most of the Muslims were under surveillance by the American government; their telephone conversations were monitored, their financial transactions were secretly scrutinized and ethnic-religious profiling became common. Relatively rigorous checking was in store for travelers with Muslim names, Middle Eastern features or origin from any Muslim country. Many Muslims were summarily deported back to their countries of origin. Unfortunately, terrorist attacks also took place during the later years in a few European countries that prompted further restrictions on Muslims living in the Western world. I was immensely grieved by the loss of life and destruction of property caused by the terrorist attacks. I was also terribly shocked to see some of the prominent clergy of Christian faith maligning Islam and degrading the Prophet Muhammad in their sermons and other public utterances. They made every effort to unduly accuse Islam of terrorist inclinations and to generalize the violent acts of a small group over the whole population of about 1.4 billion Muslims of the world. Without much hesitation the Western media and most of the politicians followed suit.
During the last four years, I have observed with immense anguish the ceaseless assaults on Islam and its followers. The Muslim Holy Book was reviled by the US military personnel while interrogating Muslim detainees in Abu Gharaib (Iraq), GuantanamoBay (Cuba) and Bagram (Afghanistan). The Prophet of Islam was insulted in the cartoons first published in Denmark toward the end of 2005 and repeatedly circulated in several newspapers of the West in later months. Another version of the cartoons with the same theme was published in Denmark in October 2006. I have listened to quite a few radio talk hosts of the fundamentalist Christian faith inciting their audience against the religion of Islam. It is bewildering for me to grasp the enormity of such attacks on a religion that clearly and unequivocally condemns terrorism and promotes the concept of a universal brotherhood of the entire humankind. I was under the impression that the religious leaders had learnt from the past conflicts between Islam and Christianity and henceforth would deliberately retreat from any confrontational intent.
I have read about the destruction of Afghanistan and the killing of thousands of its innocent civilians as a collective punishment for the crime of harboring a fugitive presumed to be the mastermind of the tragedy of 9/11. Another defenseless Muslim country has been reduced to a state of endless tribulation, disharmony and internal strife. According to a survey conducted by John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at Baltimore, 654,965 Iraqis have died since 2003 as a result of the US led invasion. The study was reported in the Guardian of October 11, 2006
Formats
Softcover
£16.99
£11.30
Softcover
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Book Details
Language :
English
Publication Date :
08/12/2008
Format :
Softcover
Dimensions :
6x9
Page Count :
368
ISBN :
9781434378507
About the Book
With the dawn of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula during the seventh century, a new civilization was born. It represented a culture of enlightenment emulating a universal human brotherhood, a life of peace with justice and truth, and a constant striving to eradicate oppression, bigotry and inequalities among human beings. The acquisition of knowledge or the quest for truth became a noble pursuit with an unyielding spirit of inquiry to unravel the secrets of the universe. The main purpose of the book is to highlight the endeavors of the Muslim scholars who kept the light of erudition aflame for centuries during the Middle Ages and beyond until the beginning of the European Renaissance. They were the torch bearers of reason, scientific thinking and creative expression. Their erudite contributions encompassed a great variety of disciplines as they wrote multi-volume works of original nature. They also assimilated notable works of the scholars of Greece, India and other countries and disseminated them through translations and commentaries.
The impact of the Islamic civilization during its centuries of glory and enlightenment could be felt in its social and political institutions. Following the edicts of Islam, political authority was generally exercised with prudence being mindful of the demands of impartial justice, public welfare, and a strict code of legal protections for the people of non-Muslim affiliations. A recurrent theme of the book is that peace on earth could be established only by a fervent commitment to justice by every nation of the world. The book also calls to attention the concordance between Islam and modernity with the presumption that the Islamic doctrine can be successfully adapted to the exigencies of the changing times.
The concluding sections of the book contain a narrative of the state of Muslim nations of the world presently faced with internal dissentions and a negative portrayal of Islam in the West. The lag of knowledge and predominance of extremism in some of the Muslim countries have precarious effects on their future. It is high time for Muslims to reclaim their intellectual heritage and pursue the path of reason and enlightenment both in their religious beliefs and their vision of the world community with a venerable place for them.
About the Author
The author has two master’s degrees, one in education and the other in history. He also has a Ph.D. degree in education with specialization in school counseling that he obtained from IndianaUniversity, Bloomington, Indiana. He has spent most of his life in academic pursuits. He has taught at the various levels of education for almost four decades including 27 years at the graduate level mostly teaching core courses in teacher education and specialized courses in educational guidance and counseling. He has authored and coauthored several articles in the field of education. He has also co-authored a book in the area of guidance and counseling. Additionally, he has published a book entitled Islam: Religion of Peace and Justice in 2003 of which he is the sole author. He does not presume any substantial knowledge of Islam for the reader to grasp the essence of his new book.
His research activities have encompassed a comparative study of different religions, the various dimensions of the Islamic faith, the political structures of selected Islamic countries and the state of Muslims around the world at the present time. A keen observer of world events, he has witnessed with anguish the internal strife within the Muslim communities and the misperceptions about Islam in the Western countries. By his lectures and writings, he has endeavored to present Islam as a universal message of peace with its core values of human dignity, human rights, impartial justice, compassion, respect for all the doctrines of faith and a fervent pursuit of reason and authentic knowledge. His plea to his fellow Muslims is to embrace these essentials of the Islamic faith and undertake an introspective journey that leads toward a blissful and productive life promoting the cause of peace in the world.
