Gulf Daily News: by Aylin Kocaman.
Research by the German Bertelsmann Foundation has revealed problems in Western societies regarding the perception of Islam. Many countries regard Islam as a threat – especially Israel, Spain, the US, Switzerland and Germany. It’s equated with terror, fear and danger. There are also those who believe that Islam is incompatible with Western values.
Some Muslims may blame the Western societies in question for these evaluations. But it is not all that logical to lay the entire blame for Islamophobia at the feet of the West, when Muslims are killing one another and when the Press constantly covers stories of women stripped and beaten to death for converting to Christianity, or when radical types stand up and say that the Boston massacre would have been done much more professionally had Al Qaeda been involved.
Radicalism is a terrible scourge, and one of the main ways of ridding ourselves of it is through an alliance of good people.
Categories: Arab World, ISLAM, Islam: A Religion of Peace, Terrorism