Role of Muslim Communities and Islamic Institutions
in Highlighting the Image of Islam
Introduction:
The need to spotlight the verities of Islam using the right approach and following the appropriate method, in order to refute the allegations spread by its enemies is getting more and more urgent with the expansion of smear campaigns mounted against Islam and Muslims. These campaigns are stage-managed in violation of the rules of the International law and in breach of the principles of justice and equity. They are specially intended to stir up religious, civilizational and cultural conflicts, clashes and discords, which threaten the stability of human societies and create persisting situations of disturbance and confusion, casting doubt, suspicion and mistrust over nations and peoples.
Since the events of September 11th, 2001, which put the whole world ascender and which every pious, wise and conscientious person rejects and denounces, the Islamic world has been subject to gratuitous and tendentious campaigns, charging Islam and Muslims with blind accusations goading the international community on against Muslim peoples and Islamic governments, provoking animosity and hatred and setting international public opinion against the whole Islamic world.
The attitude taken by some circles in the West against the Islamic religion, culture and civilization and towards Muslim peoples and Islamic countries and governments is incessantly exacerbating, not only as far as the Islamic world is concerned but the world over as well. This rancorous and racial attitude that is inconsistent with international law and opposed to the spirit of dialogue and coexistence among civilizations, cultures and among all the followers of the Revealed Religions, is a potential threat to international security and peace, likely to destabilize the world community and sow tension in international relations, at a time when humanity is wading through a critical juncture in a search for a haven and aspiring towards deliverance from the hegemony of the new world order, led by the one pole that influences world politics in total disrespect for international law and international legitimacy.
These attitudes, which constitute a threat to the very essence of human civilization, call upon the Islamic world to stand up to these campaigns, following the right Islamic approach which champions peace, coexistence and human brotherliness, rejects violence and coercion, denounces and condemns all ways and forms of terrorism taken as the cause of perversion on earth and aggression on humanity and civilization.
Full discharge of this responsibility hinges upon a number of principles. Most indispensable of these is self-empowerment which calls upon Islamic countries to redress their general conditions on the basis of science, research and planning, geared to benefiting from the experience and know-how of industrially, scientifically and technologically developed countries. Restoring any of these wrong situations, conducting policies applied to different fields, particularly in the domains of education, teaching, science, culture and communication, promoting solidarity, interrelationship and cooperation among Islamic countries are other prerequisites to achieve power, imperviousness and the ability of self-vindication in order to defend the interests and preserve the principles and the fundamentals which constitute the mainstay for the Islamic identity and the cornerstone to the large Islamic edification.
A nation that lacks the conditions of self-sustained growth and the bases for progress to raise itself to a better and a higher status cannot defend its rights. Therefore, the image of Islam finds its visual expression through the Islamic Ummah, because the whole world perceives Islam through the reality of the Islamic world itself.
Therefore, redressing the image of the Islamic Ummah is the first step towards correcting the image of Islam. This cannot be brought to a successful conclusion unless the actual situation of the Islamic Ummah is changed, using the right approach and the appropriate method which draw upon science, wisdom, rationality and firm resolution.
Accordingly, highlighting the image of Islam in the world should start from redressing its image from within. Besides, the degree of the responsibility to bring this Islamic civilizational project to a successful conclusion differs from one group to the other and from one environment to the other. However, we shall, in this paper, content ourselves with addressing the role of Muslim communities and Islamic institutions in highlighting the image of Islam. In order to broach this topic, we will start by discussing the concept of Muslim minorities and communities; then we will look at their conditions, and end up by considering ways of taking advantage of the cultural capital they have in terms of available potentialities, instruments and opportunities. And in the light of this, we will examine their relations with their immediate environment before we come to analysing the dimensions of the role that Muslim minorities may assume to highlight the image of Islam in their host societies of which they are members in such a way as to serve, in the first place, the Islamic interest and to discharge the mission of the Islamic institutions amongst the environment in which they are operating.
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