Is islam enemy of the west Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Is islam enemy of the west - Essay Example The handful of Muslim radicals that exist in America has caused typical Americans to begin viewing Islam as the enemy of the West when nothing could be further from the truth. Through factual research, I am looking forward to dispelling the misconception that Islam is the enemy of the West. I will look into the reasons that these misconceptions came about and try to explain the reasons as to why Islam is most certainly not the enemy of the West. To begin with, Americans themselves chose to perpetuate the misconception about how the other Islam followers truly view the United States. People such as Lieutenant Colonel named Matthew A. Dooley have chosen to tell his military troops that; Islam has already declared war on the West† and that hundreds of millions of Muslims â€Å"[b]y their own stated doctrine†¦are motivated and unified under one ideology and one goal. They hate everything you stand for, and will never coexist unless you submit (Stoakes, Emanuel â€Å"Islam is Not â€Å"the Enemy† -- Irrational Hatred Is) It is quite difficult for me to understand how a representative of the United State military could choose to perpetuate such a stereotype of Muslims when the American military has always been viewed as one of the most tolerant armed forces on the planet whose sole mission in life is to bridge the misunderstandings between warring factions in order to bring peace to the region. Perhaps it is because Islam has always been the less understood religion among all the religions in the world that people tend to believe the worst things about its religious beliefs and practices that has caused the misconception about what the religion truly stands for. Things got even worse for the practitioners of the religion who live in America after the Twin Tower attacks because news media outlets heavily promoted the anti American sentiment that supposedly accompanies Islam. Those who insist that Islam is the enemy say that is so because Americans should not break bread with people whose beliefs have chosen to â€Å"violate the American values of pluralism and tolerance.† (Talbot, Matt â€Å"Islam is Not the Enemy†) This is not a topic that should be seen and argued by its practitioners as a clash of cultures and values. It was Wayne Palmer who tried to explain the reality behind the belief that Islam is the enemy of the best by saying that â€Å"American Muslims are our best allies in this war against Islamic terrorism.† (Pastore, Frank â€Å"Islam is Not the Enemy!) The main problem is that the United States, as a country has a problem differentiating between the true teachings of Islam and the distorted point of view that the radical Muslims choose to promote in the name of their version of Islam. Should the Americans only bother to truly understand the underlying basis of Islam, and accept the fact that Islam followers and those of Jewish and other religious faiths have peacefully lived side by side in the Middle East for more than a millenia, Americans will truly see that Islam -- the religion, is not the enemy of the west. Radical Muslims have become the face of Islam across the world, but just like other religions, their belief about Islam is not the only interpretation of the Quaran. Rather, theirs is only the one that has become largely viewed as the true Islam faith because of the way that these people choose to distort the words of Mohammed in their quest to