From Houston Chronicle
Bill King says unfortunately, many opinions of Islam and Muslims are colored by broad strokes that often lead to confusion between cultures.
By Bill King | September 4, 2013 |
From time to time, I find myself in a conversation or reading something on an email or in a blog arguing that Islam is inherently an intolerant religion that is inconsistent with a democracy and individual freedom.
I have even heard it claimed that all “true” Muslims in America are basically sleeper agents, secretly working to make the U.S. “caliphate” under Sharia law and that it is impossible for a Muslim to be a loyal American.
It is tempting to just write off such sentiments as residing in a few misguided souls. But, unfortunately, such views are more widespread.
In a CNN poll a couple of years ago, 47 percent of Americans said that the values of Islam are fundamentally at odds with American values. I suppose not surprisingly, older voters and those who do not personally know a Muslim are more inclined to feel this way.
Such sentiments are particularly prevalent among Republican primary voters, a pattern that has inherent political implications.
A large part of this perception is driven by confusion between various cultures and Islam.
In particular, because Islam originated on the Arabian Peninsula and Arabic is its liturgical language, it is frequently thought of as an Arab religion.
But Islam has found many other cultural expressions over centuries. It is, in fact, a much more fractured religion than Christianity, even with all of its various denominations. Today, Arabs make up only about 10 percent to 15 percent of all Muslims.
The largest country in the world with a Muslim majority is Indonesia. It has about 240 million people, 87 percent of whom identify themselves as Muslims.
More Muslims live in Indonesia than any other country and Indonesian Muslims outnumber Arab Muslims.
