Louisa says: This is not about politics, this is not even about religion, this is about education, this is about educating yourself against ignorance and fear. I am deeply disturbed by the number of Islamophobic remarks I have heard recently, all the more so as they were from people I sincerely believe should know better. After what this island has experienced in the recent past, we are the last people who should blithely attach a religious label to political or cultural practices we disagree with. This is especially true if we have not bothered to try to understand these political or cultural differences, or how they have morphed from the religious beliefs of their adherents.
It is easy and lazy to demonise those we do not understand; it takes courage to stand in the shoes of those we fear, of those we disagree with, of those we find repellent. It takes courage because we may find that they are not so scary, that we share common ground with them, that they are not really so very different after all, and that we should be ashamed for ever having thought otherwise. Have courage, educate yourself against fear, know when you are being lied to by those who would keep you scared and by sensationalist media, speak out against bigotry. If you say to me, "I hate the way Muslim men treat their women", I
will challenge you - when was the last time you talked with a Muslim of either gender on the subject? If you say to me, "The Koran incites violence", you'd better have at least read the book.
What do you know of Islam? What do you know of Muslims? Do you understand more than the TV cable news? More than the attention-grabbing headlines? Below are three books by Karen Armstrong, the tip of the iceberg but a good place to start. For further reading, there are articles online and suggestions of books at
www.islamfortoday.com, a site which began as "practical and theological information about Islam" by a Western convert who states in
the introduction, "I consider it essential to make a clear distinction between, on the one hand, the theology and religion of Islam and, on the other, politics and terrorism involving Muslims who sometimes swathe their local culture or regional geopolitical concerns in the cloak of Islam."
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people."
Title: Islam: A Short History
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6618-3
From the publisher: In the public mind, Islam is a religion of extremes: the world’s fastest-growing faith; more than three-quarters of the world's refugees are Islamic; it has produced government by authoritarian monarchies in Saudi Arabia and ultra-republicans in Iran. Whether we are reading about civil war in Algeria or Afghanistan, the struggle for the soul of Turkey, or political turmoil in Pakistan or Malaysia, the Islamic context permeates all these situations.
Karen Armstrong's elegant and concise book traces how Islam grew from the other religions of the book, Judaism and Christianity; introduces us to the character of Muhammed; and demonstrates that for much of its history, the religion has been a force for enlightenment that promoted liberties for women and allowed the arts and sciences to flourish. Islam shows how this progressive legacy is today often set aside as the faith struggles to come to terms with the economic and political weakness of most of its believers and with the forces of modernity itself.
No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular imagination as an extreme faith that promotes terrorism, authoritarian government, female oppression, and civil war. In a vital revision of this narrow view of Islam and a distillation of years of thinking and writing about the subject, Karen Armstrong’s short history demonstrates that the religion is a much more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.
Title: Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 9781842126080
From the publisher: Most people in the West know very little about the prophet Muhammad. The acclaimed religious writer Karen Armstrong has written a biography which will give us a more accurate and profound understanding of Islam and the people who adhere to it so strongly. Muhammad also offers challenging comparisons with the two religions most closely related to it - Judaism and Christianity.
Title: A History Of God
Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 9780099273677
From the publisher: The idea of a single divine being - God, Yahweh, Allah - has existed for over 4, 000 years. But the history of God is also the history of human struggle. While Judaism, Islam and Christianity proclaim the goodness of God, organised religion has too often been the catalyst for violence and ineradicable prejudice. In this fascinating, extensive and original account of the evolution of belief, Karen Armstrong examines Western society's unerring fidelity to this idea of One God and the main conflicting convictions it engenders. A controversial, extraordinary story of worship and war, A History of God confronts the most fundamental fact - or fiction - of our lives.
Title: Silence: A Christian History
