Western misperceptions against Islam and the Muslims: its impact on today’s world and what Muslims can do about it

• Main Author: Pawan Ahmad, Isham
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: BPL Islamic education; BPL27 Aims and objectives of education. Sustainable education
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/100030/1/111WESTERN%20MISCONCEPTIONS%20AGAINST%20ISLAM.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/100030/2/google%20scholar%201.docx; http://irep.iium.edu.my/100030/
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

The perceptions of the West about the Muslims have always been colored by their long history and bad blood between them, but the current misconceptions against Islam is not only fueled by popular ignorance and prejudices but also cultivated by some scholars through some subtle and not so subtle writing that have few words of praise but mostly raises red flags of the incompatibility of Islam and the West and draw their readers to prejudicial fears of Islam. Picking up their que from these so called western expert on Islam, some newspaper columnist pound their readers day in day out into submission with the visions of the danger of Islam. To allow such negative Western perceptions of Islam to go unchallenged and unabated would result in the Islam’s own detriment because of the Western views dominate the whole world, even in the Muslim world. Our challenge therefore, is to engage the West. In order to counter the Western misperceptions about Islam, we have to ask ourselves two questions. Firstly, do we contribute in any way to these false stereotypes. Second, what are our collective and individual responsibility and how can we contribution to rectify these misperceptions and harm it causes our fellow Muslims. Failure of the Muslims to take stock of their own understanding and actions would only be harmful to themselves. It is the strength of Islam demonstrated through its history that the Muslim have continuously assessed their performance and action to the ideals demanded by the Qur’an and Sunnah