RELIGION

Islam and Modernity

Islam and Modernity

Introduction

The debate on Islam with respect to modernity is a long standing one and has been explored countless times. After the fateful World Trade Centre bombings, Islamic principles and t heir ability to co-exist with Western civilization came into light and because a serious issue on which the modern world deliberated on. Media coverage on every aspect of this issue is presented to people around the world, and people have concrete notions of how every Muslim may act, whether or not these notions have any substance or truth to them. As we live in the information age, it is only too easy for people to go on Wikipedia and claim to be experts on any subject, but there are several profound aspects to Islamic principles and its roots in modernity that go unnoticed and ignored purposefully. As Muslims grow in numbers around the world, their role as citizens of the world and presence in world's affairs cannot go undermined. The subject area is vast and is capable of arousing a lot of heated debate and comments, which often lead to unobjective analysis of the situation at hand.

Discussion

Islam is a young religion, when compared to the others that have been around for multi-millenia. In the moderl world, it portrays a certain image which has been especially distorted after the 9/11 Attacks. Western civilization's idea of modernity does no go hand in hand with Islamic ideals, but that does not mean that muslims around the world have a hard time adapting to the ideas of modernity, infact, most modern day Islamists encourage others to imbibe principles of contemporary civilization. However, the line between adaptation of modernity perceived as a Western civilian while holding on to the teachings of Islam and being completely true to Islamic religion and civiliaation is where one gets confused.

Being modern in a literal sense only means thato ne is creative and innovating in their approach towards different aspects of ther lives. In the context of Islam and its relationship to modernity, the first thing one notes is Islams traditionalist ways and how they contrast with Western ideas of modernism. However, this is true not just for Islam but for other longstanding religions as well, but in light of the negative connotations attached to Islam in the last 30 years especially, the concept of Islamic traditionalism is hardly taken as relating to peace, and instead people tend to focus on the differences between the origins and Christianity and Islam. There are those who argue that Islam and Christianty vary in that, Christianity is not incompatible with secular and humanist values of the west. It is also noted that Islamic beginnings from a historical point of view were violent and overbearing, while Christianity has spread the message of peace from its point of origin. On the contrary, Islamic origins are based on imperial conquests and as such, Islam was not the first religion to do this, as a cursory glance at historical references of Christian ...