Islam's revival: A threat or a challenge?
Islam's revival: A threat or a challenge?
JAKARTA (JP): The revival of Islam is not a threat to the modern, established, and secular Western countries, an Islamic expert says.
"Western countries cannot merely generalize and say that the revival of Islam is a threat to their national interests and stability," said Prof. Dr. John L. Esposito, Director of the U.S.-based Center for Moslem-Christian Understanding.
The revival of Islam has long been identified as a threat to Western countries, with many fearing a second Iranian-like revolution.
The 1979 revolution in Iran, led by the spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini, overthrew the ruling Shah Reza Pahlevi, forcing him and his family into exile.
Esposito, a devout Catholic, told participants at a discussion called Islamic Threat: A Myth or Reality that Islam welcomes democracy everywhere, including in Islamic-based countries.
He specifically illustrated the case of Algeria, where the ruling government canceled the general election results when the minor Islamic Party won the country's first general elections.
He criticized Western countries for adopting a negative view of Islam because of the Arabic countries and their different and opposing policies.
"Differences in foreign policies could become the source of bilateral and regional conflicts," he said, stating as examples the prolonged conflicts between Iran, Iraq, Libya and others regarded as promoting terrorism.
"The Western countries should not forget that they also deal with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Egypt in their economic and foreign relations," Esposito said.
Repressive western actions could stimulate stronger opposing actions, as evidenced during the Iranian revolution, which gave the previously minor fundamental Islamic movement control of the country's leadership.
He also criticized the role of the mass media. "Television viewers might jump to the conclusion that Indonesia is an undemocratic country when they see a demonstration asking for the release of a prisoner on the evening news," he said.
The discussion, which featured Esposito as the main speaker, was held by the Mizan publishing company and the Republika daily.
Esposito started studying Islam seriously in 1968 when he was working on his doctoral thesis on Hinduism and Buddhism at Temple University in the United States.
He changed his topic of research to Islam after meeting Ismail Faruqi, a Palestinian-born professor who started a new field of study on Islam at the university that year.
Esposito, currently a professor of religious affairs and international relations at Georgetown University, has visited several Arabic countries to study Islam and returned to the States in 1977 to start working on his thesis under Faruqi's guidance.
He obtained his doctoral degree after completing a thesis on women and their status under Islamic family law. The thesis was then published into a book entitled Women in Muslim Family Law in 1982, just four years before Faruqi was killed by Jewish extremists.(imn/swe)