Religion and Theology

After the events of 911, the whole of the world especially that of America began to change how they viewed Muslims as a whole. They began to see Muslims as enemies, as dangerous, and as terrorists. The book provides its readers with a vital understanding of the Muslim world without the sensationalized concepts created by misunderstandings, misinformation, and misconceptions that we have created in the light of various terrorist acts. This book allows us deeper insights without the stigma of fear and caution where we can readily understand them as what they deserve to be understood.

Journey into Islam by Akbar Ahmed is more or less an anthropological account of the world of contemporary Islam. In a way it serves as academic literature since it has credible and sound anthropological bases but at the same time also serves as critical work that discusses the changing times in relation the dominant Islamic Dogmas and ideologies. They travelled around the world and spoke to Ordinary Muslim individuals who answered their questions and provided them with the information they needed to better understand the Muslim world. It depicts Islam as closer to what it actually is and pushes us further away from the ideas about Muslim and Islam that were created for us. Those that were created for us were brought about by fear and shock at the events that had happened in the 911 attack and this book allows its readers to better understand the relationship of the Islamic world and the international society before and after this event.

He also discusses the different events that have changed the worlds view of the Islamic community as a whole. He discusses the struggles of Islam against itself, globalization, also he discusses the clash among the different civilizations. The book is a wonderful eye opener that depicts the Islam community as individuals separate from those we have labeled as enemies and terrorists. It does a good job of separating the two very different conceptions of Muslims where the ones who advocate violence were shown to be those who were once said to be the minorities but because reaction of the world against them or rather their Muslim brothers, and their religion. They described it as being under attack, where many of them decided to take arms and defend it. This growing dissatisfaction between the Muslim world and the rest of the world is the reason why there are growing number individuals joining Islamic militant movements.

Each side of this argument, primarily that of the United states and the war against their Muslim brothers, have been rationalized in order to legitimize violent action as a reaction to the actions of the United states which made the Islamic issue blow out of proportion because of its internationalization where the usual local struggle between the three Islamic groups were brought at a bigger context to be fought in a bigger arena.

The book claims that there are still those who want peace not through violence and war but peace through acceptable means such as harmony, cohabitation and synthesis. There are still individuals who, despite being treated unfairly and with discrimination still wish to attain peace with the outside world. These individuals, the majority of Muslims, are a dwindling population. There is a shift in the thinking of the Muslim societies. From a passive and defensive stance, they are becoming more aggressive and offensive in the way they view the aggression of the world around them. It now becomes apparent that we ourselves have created this monster we are currently facing now but it is still not too late for change. The Muslim world is still perceptive to bridge the gap that was created when we attacked them.

This work on Muslim contemporary civilization may perhaps have a common ground with other readings in the semester in its theme of multiculturalism and tolerance with other religions and cultures. There are different perspectives that allow us to view the world that we live in where we can only choose for ourselves which to believe. Some perspectives are more defensive than others. Others are more discriminatory. There are even those that seem to be neutral and more understanding of our current time and situation. Tolerance and understanding becomes the key in order to better understand and peacefully live together in harmony. The readings in this semester show how much misconceptions, misinformation and misunderstandings can destroy the relationship between societies and cultures.

This work provides scholars in general an unprecedented understanding of the Muslim contemporary world. It gives answers to questions we have long thought to have no other answer than that of aggression and violence. We can now look at the world of Islam as a word much as our own, where when someone has wronged another, the common reaction is to defend it or, if damage has already been done, a call for vengeance emerges. Through this book, individuals come to realize that the growing problem of non-Muslim societies in these contemporary times is that of the misunderstandings that cause us to act against them that caused them in turn to do acts against us. The book provides an alternative to violence, and that alternative is through dialogue.

The book was targeted towards individuals who may be able to make a change with this growing gap between the Muslim population and the non-Muslim population. This includes political, spiritual and charismatic leaders whose ideas and beliefs are looked up to by their constituents. It is directed to individuals who can change the minds and beliefs of other people about each others people and cultures. It aims to influence individuals who think about the current situation in whose bases are from misconceptions, misinformation and misunderstandings aggravate it.

It is also directed at individuals who have political power over Islam and Muslim related policies in order for them to better understand the current situation in light of the thoughts, sentiments and emotions of the Ordinary Muslim and not through their own narrow views of the situation. This is a book that aims that these policy makers are able to better address this growing problem in a way that is acceptable and lasting for both parties.

This is a work that is designed in order to both inform the readers as well as challenge dominant current thinking about the matter. This work is designed to push forth the idea that the Muslim community should not be regarded as the enemy rather they should be seen as a people who were being attacked and their action are only in response to what has been done to them. It provides us the views and comments from the grassroots level where the information is raw and un-manipulated that can help us understand why they were doing what they were doing, saying what they were saying as well as thinking what they were thinking. It challenges the current dominant thinking that the Muslims and their religion are all enemies that need to be feared or cautioned against. This kind of thinking is destructive against them since it will lead to discrimination and further feelings of being attacked that can only aggravate the situation.

As a writer, I view this text as a standard text which has solid anthropological foundations and should be treated as a serious reference for the serious issues that it tackles. I could not see it as a fringe opinionated text since it is simply a reflective account of the individuals that they have spoken to where they have shown that there is similar thoughts or perhaps a dominant ideology that are circulating among them which is also present in our society. The book is an extraordinary book that destroys barriers and provides us an opportunity to builds bridges among the cultures to promote understanding and harmony. It may be unfair for the team and individuals who participated in this research to simply dismiss this work as opinion.

I believe that the reason why the author chose to write about this topic is because of the growing gap between the Muslim society and the non-Muslim society. He shares to us that there is a growing problem in the United States and the Muslim population throughout the world because of the labels each of them have given each other. It became his task as a scholar, an intellectual, as a Muslim and also as member of a bigger society to stop or at least give light to the current situation through their study. He shares to us that he felt that it was his responsibility, and also the responsibility of thinking individuals to make sense of the situation and provide answered to the questions no one cares to ask.

I think that as a Muslim, it hurt Dr. Ahmed to see himself and his people being treated unfairly and unjustly. It may have also hurt him to see that there is growing dissatisfaction and distrust among the two cultures that he loves the most. This writer thinks that it hurt him to see that the culture he loved and culture that he had pinned his hopes upon to be the one who will be able to help the situation has created a barrier against each other that prevents them from developing and understanding each other. Another reason may also be that he has become tired of the situation of ambiguity that refuses to bring out questions and prevents understanding about why these situations are happening and why do they continue to proliferate in these times. We can see that this is a topic close to his heart and it seemed that he simply wants a solution to the problem that the world is currently facing.

Though it is still too early to determine whether or not the work is useful or not since there are still no observable effects that can be used as basis for evaluation, the work is a hopeful alternative to the idea of violence being the answer to this conflict. The concept of dialogue being the answer for decreasing the gap between the two cultures is actually a very promising one since those who are sympathizers to the Militant Muslim Movements but are not directly affected by the war can still be convinced through conversation. It is when they no longer feel that they are attacked and discriminated against that they may be able to lose interest in the militant movement altogether. Though it may affect the views of many Muslim sympathizers it would still not be able to address the matter and issues arising from public policy against the Muslim population since this already lies not in the academe but lies primarily in the field of politics.

Being such we can say that the project is truly a success based on the objective of providing a better understanding with regards to Islam and the Muslim population. The book sufficiently discusses the views of different Muslim individuals but it is this writers opinion that it could have been better if Dr Ahmed included the thoughts and sentiments of the student assistants who went with him in order to better provide the message of an opinionated work. Though it was sufficiently presented and the idea that he had a team of skilled American student assistants with him, it lacks weight since it feels like the thoughts and sentiments of the books primarily come from him.