Obligation and Accountability: Islamic Politics in North Africa
1991; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Volume: 120; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1548-6192
Autores Tópico(s)Islamic Studies and History
ResumoThe popular western view of islam today is remarkably unchanged from that of twelfth-century European Christen dom: as both a civilization and a religion, Islam appears menacing, recalcitrant, corrupt. For the medieval Christian, the Muslim's embrace of Muhammad's message was adherence to a patently false prophet. Today, the religion in whose name the peace-loving Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat was killed and the pro-Western Iranian Shah Reza Pahlavi overthrown seems no less profoundly perverse. This apparent continuity in Western views of Islam conveys the impression not only that Islam is fundamentally wicked but also that it has an essential, primordial, unchanging character. Newspaper editorialists, foreign policy analysts, and textbook writers all speak of Islam as essentially uniform and timeless, unvarying in time and space. Of course, by force of circumstance, Americans have been made aware of the existence of sects in Islam?the Shi'a of Iran are understood to be somehow different from the Sunnis of most of the
Referência(s)