By Chris Evans
From a colonial superpower to communism and then today’s religious extremists, the United States has been at odds with some part of the globe since its very existence.
Understanding the world and how it reacts to U.S. political policy and culture is very important in an every shrinking global society.
For those interested in learning more about Islam – the fastest growing religion on earth – there are countless resources from the Holy Koran to the Internet. Recently, I attended a program on the Islamic culture. It was very enlightening. Although I had studied the religion a good bit over the past six years, I found many new aspects.
Islam is a rapidly growing faith based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed. It was founded in the early seventh century generally as a peaceful, loving doctrine that parallels early Judaism in some respects. The more radical sects of Islam, however, have given rise to worldwide caution regarding Muslim extremists. Last weekend’s bomb scares in England are among the latest episodes.
The current strife between Muslims and Jews and Christians started well before the terrorist attacks of 9-11 or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It really started about 1,000 years ago with the Medieval Crusades in Europe and the Middle East. In fact, one could argue that it goes even farther into history, back to the prophet Abraham and his sons Ishmael and Isaac.
We can’t blame a single president or one political party for what’s going on right now. Extremists don’t care if the “infidels” are burrows or elephants, Aussies or Anglo.
What we must do, as Americans, is to educate ourselves regarding the beliefs and spread of Islam worldwide. Currently, there are about 2.1 billion Christians on earth. There are about 1.3 billion Muslims. However, the Islamic faith has increased over the past decade through births and conversions at the rate of 245 percent. Meanwhile, Christian numbers have gone up just 47 percent. Those are the two largest religious groups on the globe, well ahead of Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.
In fact, the third largest group of people is those who are secular, nonreligous, agnostic or atheist. They number just over 1 billion. Imagine that host of people as Independents in, let’s say, a political season. The major parties are each fighting to lure them in, attract them into their own fold. Welcome to Earth 2007.
If a religious group is fishing for men, you can bet they’re casting into that sea of current non-believers.
In Europe, Islam is spreading through France and Britain and soon could declare a political and social majority in most European countries. The same could happen in the United States over the next 20-30 years.
In America, private Islamic schools are common in some states like Minnesota, California, New Jersey and Florida. Minnesota, which has the highest density of Muslims in America, last November elected Keith Ellison of Minneapolis to Congress, the first Muslim in the nation to go to the U.S. House. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is one of the Democratic favorites to become the next President of the United States, lived in Indonesia as a child and has acknowledged attending a Muslim school.
There are certainly moderate Muslims worldwide who are fighting to prevent a backlash against their religion because of recent links to terrorist activity. Radical fundamentalists, however, believe they are in a global Jihad, or holy war, against the infidels and America is squarely in the center of their crosshairs.
To a large degree, most of us in Crittenden County do not understand the influence of Islam on the United States. It will impact us more and more in time.
In 1970, there were about 100,000 Muslims in the U.S. Today, there are about 10 million.
Understanding the Islamic religion and its culture is terribly important. This is not the first time I have written on the subject, and it will not be the last. I urge you to do your own research and make up your own minds. The better your understand what others are planning and doing, the more apt you will be to deal with the matter once it crosses the county line.
Chris Evans is editor and publisher of The Crittenden Press. You can reach him at chrisevans@the-press.com.
