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Islam, Image Of In Western Countries

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By Author: Ibrahim Machiwala Lodhi
Total Articles: 463
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"Islam originated from monotheism, it conceived idolatry as its real enemy and acted with the purpose of subduing it first in the Arabian Peninsula. The Muslims marched northward into Syria, defeated the army of Heraclius at Yarmuk, and captured Jerusalem and Damascus. They went eastward into Iraq, defeated the Iranian at Seleucia. They further went westward and occupied Egypt away from the Byzantine empire. "In all this expansion" writes T.C. Young in Near Eastern Culture and Society (New Jersey, 1951, p. 100), "there was no forcible conversion of Jews or Christians to the Muslim religion. There was freedom for the people of the book to continue in their own beliefs and practices."

The Koran accepts Christianity and Judaism as divinely revealed religions, therefore, it did not instigate any struggle against them. Christianity first however conceived of Islam as a competitor and therefore, attacked it directly. Since inconoclasticism of Islam was against their frame of mind, the Christianity started a crusade against Islam, and their reaction in the East and West took different forms. The Christians tried to distort the ...
... very image of Islam through their propaganda machinery. John of Damascus (675-749) in his book, De Haeresibus considered Islam as heresy. The first Byzantine writer who referred to the Prophet of Islam was Theophanes the Confessor (d. 202/817), attacked Islam as wildly as John. Guilbert de Nogent (d. 518/1124) criticized on the fact that wine and pork were tabooed in Islam. Guillaume de Tripoli's work during 12th and 13th century was based with extreme hate and was most offensive. Raymond Lull (d. 716/1316) studied Arabic and Muslim philosophy in Tunis, and suggested to the then Pope to start a moral crusade against Islam. Marco Polo spoke of the Muslims as the worshippers of Muhammad. Renan wrote that Muhammad invented a new religion to revenge himself on his brethren. Roger Wendover (d. 635/1237) and John Maundeville (d.757/1356) attained mastership in cultivating quite senseless and baseless stories for the Prophet. Saint Eulogius also applied savage language for Islam to its extreme. Diceto followed Sigebert (1030-1112) to describe that the Muslims offered Muhammad the worship of Godhead. Edward Herbert (1583-1648) wrote that Muhammad preached against Pope Boniface's usurpation of the title of Universal Bishop. Pedro de Alfonso wrote that the Prophet attempted to become king under the veil of religion on the model of David and Solomon. Fantastically, du Pont mentioned that the Prophet not only allowed every male to have ten wives, but every woman ten husbands. Thus, in the fabulous writings, a fairly consistent picture of Islam was designed in the western countries. The blind and fictitious literary aggression in Europe, however, continued for a long period without any break. They knew the historical fact less, but propagated more on the basis of fairy tales, which can be gauged from the report of a Latin author, Joinville (1224-1317), who was quite unknown with the relationship of the Prophet with Ali, making the latter as the uncle of the former. Lemons made A'isha as the first wife of the Prophet. Pedro wrote that the Prophet's father Abdullah was known as Habedileth, that is, "slave of the idol Leth." When mentioning the Prophet's name, Hottinger says: "at the mention of whom the mind shudders." Thus, in view of H. Reland, "No religion has been more calumniated than Islam in western literature." Curiously enough, Peter Heylyn wrote in 1621, a geographical treatise, Mikrokosmos, wherein he describes, "Deprived of both his parents when but two years old, Muhammad was left unto the care of an uncle, who not able to give him education, sold him at 16 years of age to the Ismaelites, by whom exposed to sale in the open markets; he was bought by a certain Abdalmutaliffe, a wealthy merchant. On his master's death, Muhammad falls heir to his wealth by marrying his widow."

During the early part of the Middle Age, the Prophet was mostly pronounced in the occidental literature as Bafum, Maphomet, Mammet, Mahound or Mawmet. The western poets, romancers and composers of plays also rendered the terms of Mahoune, Mahown, Mahoun, Mahon, Macon or Maho. The Prophet was also described as Saint Mahoun, Lord Mahown or Sir Mahown. During 12th century, the usage of Mawment ultimately passed to Mahomet, and was also latinized as Machumat, Machomet, Magmed and Moomethes. The negative approach of the westerners can be seen further from their writings, in which the Muslims had been termed with different misnomers, such as Infidels, Miscreants, Paynims, Pagans, Heathens, Heathen hounds, Enemies of God, the Turks, Allophilli, Hagarebes, Ishmaelites, Canes, Moabites, Aliens, Gentiles, etc., and occasionally Goths and Vandals in the poetical works. The most popular term, however, was the Saracens.

The crooked approach towards Islam can be judged from the fantastic prophecies of Sansovino and countless others, limiting the life of Islam to a millennium. According to Flowers of History (Bonn, 1849, 2:515), the astronomers of Toledo record that, "Within seven years from the year of 1229, a doubt will spring up amongst the Saracens, they shall abandon their mosques and embrace Christianity." Emperor Leo of Constantinople predicted that Islam would be destroyed by a light-haired family! In the reign of the Empress Theodora, a prophecy was announced about the end of the Muslims on the whole by the Macendonians.

During the early part of the Middle Ages, when Islam and Christianity were arrayed against each other as opposing camps, and often there was an open war, all sorts of blasphemies were invented further against Islam. Peter the Venerable (1094-1156) had the Koran translated for the first time from Arabic into Latin, whose purpose was to refute Islamic mission. Another Koranic translated brought forth by Robert of Ketton in 1143. It was followed by the translation of Mark of Toledo (1190-1200) under the title, Alcorani Machometi Liber. The same period produced Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and Raymond Lull (1232-1316), whose writings were absolutely unreliable and untrue. Ranulf Higden (d. 1364) and John Mandeville (1300-1372) repeated once again the legends of 11th and 12th centuries about the Prophet. Further, the Crusades according to Calverley poured out false informations for several centuries to all people of Europe, and the false reports brought back by the Crusaders, filled the west with popular misinformation that western mass education has not yet able to remove.

In spite of the fact that the Renaissance became possible only through profiting by Muslim works on science and philosophy, and their translations thereof for centuries, the attitude of some western people, who were hostile to the very civilization that created these works indicates how deep-rooted the religious, political and racial prejudices were. Europe remained ignorant of Islam for a considerably long time, and when it tried to get it know, it was suffering from strange notions-calumnious as well as whimsical. The writings of John Bale (1495-1563) and Henry Smith (1560-1591) however indicate an unchanged thinking of the westerners about Islam. Between 1572 and 1575, many traditional predictions also poured out in Europe against Islam. An Abyssinian prediction relates that, "Mecca and Medina shall be destroyed soon." The prophecy of the wandering Jews, uttered at Astrakhan in 1676, assigned the year 1700 for the breakdown of the Turks and Islam.

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