A visit to the United States of America in September last was markedly different than my previous visits. My focus was on the attitude of the natives Americans toward those who were Muslims and had immigrated to the USA from different parts of the world.
After 9/11 there was a reversal in the American perception with regard to Muslims and their attitude toward other religious entities. The process of alienation in different segments of the people living in the USA and in the West had began soon after the 9/11 incident but the Muslims were the worst affected.
A few isolated cases of terrorism in Europe and elsewhere that followed this incident forced the Muslim communities in the USA and in the West to conduct their day to day business in a careful manner.
Their integrity was at stake. Muslims were accused of involvement in these incidents and they were to prove that terrorism had nothing to do with Islam. There had begun a process of enlargement in the already existing hatred against the Muslim community. It had continued gaining momentum despite efforts to control it.
It was followed by a rush of propaganda against the Muslims community based upon religious literature found from schools for religious teachings located in far off countries. Those who had little knowledge of the Muslim faith began to interpret the contents of this literature. Based upon their sketchy knowledge about Islam the situation got further confused. As it was carried out mostly by the ill-informed people, it added misinformation to the entire issue of terrorism and Islam. They twisted the contents of this literature and painted the entire Muslim community as radicals bent upon killing non-Muslims.
In the process, it was found out that the electronic and the print media in the USA and the West had left the issue of Islam and its teachings to a large number of naive columnists and commentators to comment upon. They were yet to read and understand authentic literature on Islam and seek clarifications from Muslim scholars rather than relying upon the record of sermons delivered by half-literate mullahs.
However, the outburst of the media aimed at maligning Islam and its followers did not work. Rather, it evoked curiosity among the serious people of the USA and the West to explore the meaning of Islam, interpret it in the context of obtaining political situation in the Middle East and elsewhere and to compare the teachings of Islam with other religions. The media outburst created the necessity of learning from the history how Muslims, as preachers of human values as well as conquerors, have lived for the past fifteen hundred years.
In the past five years a change has taken place in the USA. There is a realisation that terrorism has nothing do with the followers of one religion or the other. The native educated and informed Americans know that Muslims as preachers and as conquerors have always lived in multi racial, multi-religious and multi-lingual societies. They have enriched the society they lived in and have left their impression on the cultural and social behaviour of the people they ruled.
But knowing this much about the followers of Islam is not enough for the Native American. There are debates on how to achieve harmony in a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-lingual community, which is known as American society. They are exploring the meaning of harmony, tolerance, universal progress and cross-cultural bondage.
In today's America there is more discussion on 'religion' and 'tolerance' than it was ever before. Even international conferences that are taking place at different forums look meaningless if these two words 'religion' and 'tolerance' do not find a place in papers, discussions and debates.
The academics in the USA are trying to find out 'what went wrong and where' in assessing the contribution of the Muslim community in the development of mankind in the world. There is awakening in the American society that the 'Muslim culture' is progressive in nature and has evolved to its present form by adhering to its basic Islamic values that has the capacity to absorb the virtues needed to move forward.
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