The Encyclopedia of World Religions

224 S Islam

terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, U.S. Presi dent George Bush rightly stated that these acts were not representative of Islam. It is sometimes hard for people to remember that. At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, Muslims, like people of other reli gions, have been wrestling with the impact of globalization and technological change on their lives. In many respects Muslims have embraced these developments. Computers and the Internet provide good examples ( see COMPUTERS AND RELI GION ). Resources for learning about and practicing Islam are widely available on the Internet. More over, e-mail allows Muslims in Alberta, Canada, for example, to remain in much closer contact with people in areas where Islam is more prevalent. At the same time, contemporary changes present challenges. Many Christians in the United States worry about the morals their children encounter in movies and on television. Muslims do, too. Muslims are also particularly sensitive, as other previously colonized people are, to ideas and practices imposed on them from the outside. As a result they sometimes favor alternatives to ideals that Westerners cherish. For example, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights recognizes as a basic human right the right to proselytize (to try to convince other people of the truth of one’s own beliefs). This right is particularly important for traditions of C HRISTIANITY with strong mission ary traditions. Many Muslims, however, prefer not to encounter people trying to convert them, especially when they are living in Muslim states. For that reason, the Islamic Declaration of Univer sal Human Rights does not recognize the right to proselytize. One movement that deserves more attention than it has received in North America is Islamic FEMINISM . Muslim feminists are sometimes puzzled by the issues that interest Westerners. For example, many Muslim feminists do no think issues of dress are that important. At times, some have even cho sen to wear the veil, as Iranian feminists did before the 1979 Revolution. They wanted to show their solidarity with other Muslims. Muslim feminists have tended to focus more on other issues, such

Religious authority resides with the ulema, schol ars of Islam. For Shi’ites, political and religious leadership are ideally exercised by the same person, the male descendant of Muhammad known as the imam. A Shi’ite community known as the twelvers believes that the imam, last seen in 873 C . E ., is exercising authority while in hiding. Their religious leaders, headed by the AYATOLLAHS (“reflections of God”), are considerably more independent than their Sunni counterparts. Another Shi’ite community, known as the Nizari Ismailis, believe that the imam is still present in the world. Known as the A GA K HAN , he exercises authority over a worldwide community. Like some schools of Christianity, Islam has not traditionally recognized the ideals of separation of religion and government and of religious plural ism that have now become common in Europe, North America, and other parts of the world. Like other societies, contemporary Muslim societies are addressing the issues posed by the modern ideal of the secular state. ISLAM TODAY The most frequent images of Islam that readers in the United States are likely to encounter today connect it with FUNDAMENTALISM and terrorism ( see FUNDAMENTALISM , I SLAMIC ). It is important to keep these images in perspective. Europeans and North Americans have a tradition of “demonizing” Mus lims—of unfairly thinking of them as less than fully civilized or even fully human—that goes back all the way to the Middle Ages. In the late 20th century some Muslim commu nities, like some Christian and Hindu communities, became more religiously conservative. Examples include Islamic states such as Turkey, which for much of the 20th century had been adamantly sec ular, and immigrant Muslim communities, such as Muslims born to immigrant parents in Great Brit ain. Some Muslims, especially in the Middle East, have taken up arms against what they perceive as threats to their religion and freedom ( see AL -Q AEDA and H AMAS ). Many non-Muslim groups have per formed similar acts of violence, but their targets have not always been the United States. After the