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Summary : What image do Europeans have of Islam and what are the reasons for it? How then should Islam be presented to Europeans? It is a sad fact but the prevailing image that Europeans have of Islam is as 'the religion of the sword.' It is an image that was conjured up during the crusades in the Middle Ages and has been carefuly nurtured ever since both by church and by state. This prejudice, on the part of ordinary people, together with vague notions of harems and veiled women, stem from a general and profound ignorance of Islam.

The image Europeans have of Islam

 

What image do Europeans have of Islam and what are the reasons for it? How then should Islam be presented to Europeans?
It is a sad fact but the prevailing image that Europeans have of Islam is as 'the religion of the sword.' It is an image that was conjured up during the crusades in the Middle Ages and has been carefuly nurtured ever since both by church and by state. This prejudice, on the part of ordinary people, together with vague notions of harems and veiled women, stem from a general and profound ignorance of Islam.
The church and state powers in Europe have always found it necessary to present Islam as something totally alien to Europe and to European civilization. The accounts of European travellers to the Ottoman and other Muslims lands in the 17th and 18th centuries became the source of a new movement of oriental exoticism in art and literature and this tradition later developed into the familiar academic orientalism of the 19th and 20th centuries, which was more closely connected with European governments and with their Foreign and Colonial Offices. The great numbers of books they produced deliberately distorting Islam, some of them containing the most ugly lies about the Prophet Muhammed (Peace and blessings be upon him), under the guise of 'objective' scholarship, can be said to be the main source of whatever 'knowledge' there is about Islam in Europe.
Another sad fact is that the policies adopted today by the rulers in some Muslim countries together with the behaviour of some individual Muslims have only reinforced the prejudices and distortions, and have thus deepened the ignorance of Europeans about Islam. How could the aggres­sive and vengeful bombing of civilians by both sides in the Iran-Iraq war, for example, and a gen­eral unconciliatory attitude of many leaders in the Muslim world toward each other and their use of force towards their own people contribute to the development of more positive attitudes? Also, the behaviour of many people from Muslim countries visiting Europe, such as the very rich ostenta­tiously squandering their wealth in the pursuit of pleasure while millions of Muslims elsewhere are dying of starvation, can do nothing but perpetuate that false and damaging image of Islam.
However, probably the most effective cause in its perpetuation is the controlled propaganda against Islam in the West, which is disseminated through every means of communication possible. It is most cleverly orchestrated; the activities of Muslims such as those described above play straight into their hands and they portray such events and behaviour on the television, radio, and in the press in such a way as to play on the pub­lic's prejudices and to increase distrust and revul­sion. Films and the cinema are also an important weapon in their armoury.
A further and less sinister reason for the lack of understanding about Islam by Europeans is more to do with the Christian view of religion, which is that religion is largely a personal matter, certainly concerned with ethics and morality, which will be reflected through the society at large, but still fun­damentally divorced from politics, science, and so on; it is based on the dichotomy of matters spiri­tual and matters temporal. That is, matters to do with religion and the church are seen to be quite distinct from matters to do with the life of this world. For this reason, and because Christianity is so closely linked to Western civilization, someth­ing of which was discussed above, Islam, as a compehensive system that embraces every aspect of man's life in this world and the Hereafter, is both simply not understood and is also seen as alien.
In answer to the question, then, of how Euro­peans need Islam to be presented, we would sug­gest that it needs to be presented to them as the rational explanation of this world, that is, our­selves and the universe. It needs to be presented to them as the Holy Qur'an directs. That is to say, it must be demonstrated that God Almighty did not create man with an intellect in order not to use it to increase his belief. Rather, he created this beautiful and wonderfully functioning universe and gave man intellect and sent prophets with revealed Books as guides, and finally the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with the Holy Qur'an, in order that man might attain to rational and true belief. If the universe is presented as a book created as the means to introduce its Author, which human beings are invited to read using their intellects so as to be able to prove and understand rationally the truths of belief, then it will be clear that each person is directly responsi­ble to his Creator and that there is no need for any intermediary in the performance of his wor­ship and religion.
Furthermore, when presented in this manner, the false basis of what came to be accepted as Christianity will become evident. It will become clear that existence and creation is pure good and only nonexistence is pure evil, and that when the universe is understood correctly, the necessity for the doctrine of original sin ceases to exist. The creation and man do not possess some inherentflaw that requires to be redeemed through the pas­sion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (UWP).
Any European who can begin to see Islam in this way, that is, on the level of belief, will soon be able to see through the web of lies and the false image of Islam that has developed over the centuries. He will see that, as was demonstrated above, Islam does not accept aggression on any level. In the same way that it sees the cosmos as it is, functioning according to a universal system of mutual help and cooperation, so does it also preclude aggression in any form in the actions of human beings. And so too, jihad, commonly known as 'holy war', may only be fought in defence against outside aggression. (As for Islamic dress for women, a source of much mis­understanding in the West, it shall be considered in the fifth section below.) Furthermore, if such a person's intention is sincere, that is, a person who can begin to see Islam on the level of belief, he will also understand that, far from being alien, Islam is God Almighty's final and complete revealed religion that is totally in accord with man's nature as a creature and human being, and as such transcends any restriction of race, colour, or class.

proofs, silencing the doubts and denials of materialism, naturalism and atheism; in presenting it as the final and complete revealed religion that provides for all man's aspects and faculties and thus brings him happiness in this world and the next. As far as I know, no other Islamic books have this as their aim, so although they may teach many useful facts about Islam, they are not, like the Risale-i Nur, inspired by the Qur'an to follow its method, which leads to true belief.
Generally speaking, other books deal with the social and economic aspects of Islam and with its practices. If they discuss thé basic beliefs, such as belief in the existence of one God, prophethood, resurrection and the Hereafter, their discussion is descriptive, they do not set out to demonstrate that all these truths may be proved rationally and so do not guide their reader towards the certainty of true belief. They therefore should be recog­nized as such and should not be considered to contain the whole truth of Islam. There are no exceptions to this that I have seen or heard about.