Islam and ExtremismThe republicans have got it wrong, again [Archives:2008/1192/Opinion]

One who follows the American elections, throughout the various phases of the process from the nominations to the actual race between the candidates of the two major parties is bound to catch an unusual effort to seek to include Islam as an important theme in this fight. Whether in subtle terms or direct denunciation, it is clear that there is a deliberate effort to drag the United States into a long historical conflict of cultures, that traditional Europeans have clung to for a considerable part of the 1,500 year history of Islam.

While the United States can be said to have shown a more tolerant understanding of the need for coexistence between people of all creeds, ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs, there is no doubt a deliberate effort to have American policy encompass a prejudiced unfound view of Islam that is based on misconceived notions (partly instilled by some of our very own fellow Moslems, who are as far away from Islam as any non-believer could ever be).

One believes that Moslems throughout the world need to adopt a persistent effort of awareness build-up among those who could be prone to such hate mongering techniques against Islam and Moslems. To start with it would be rational for Moslems to start with a display of genuine Islamic character and conduct to be undertaken by all Moslems. Needless to say, this would not present any difficulty to the majority of Moslems, who truly see Islam as beyond the mechanical and undue emphasis on rites and appearance that regrettably some of our “brothers”” of the faith have misleadingly reflected beyond what acceptable reason calls for. Notwithstanding the obvious effort by bigoted political opportunists and their Zionist mentors in the United States to engrain a deep hatred towards Islam among the general public