Islamic History Should be Re- naarrated: By Whom?

Islamic history should be re-narrated: scholar
Daily Times, May 24 2007

ISLAMABAD: Muslim scholars need to work for re-narration of the Islamic history to remove misunderstandings associated with Islam by orientalists and other western think-tanks, said Dr Salman Sayyid, research fellow, University of Leeds, UK.

He was delivering a lecture on ‘Islam and De-centred West: Some Critical Reflections,’ organised by the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI).

Commenting on historical, cultural and political relations between Islam and the West, Sayyid deplored the approach of some of the reformists in the Muslim world who find the words modernity and western interchangeable. He said civilisation was a synonym to westernisation to many people in the Muslim world. On the other hand, Sayed said feelings of unnecessary superiority in the West had widened the gap between the two entities to a considerable extent. Identity of the West is based on the theme ‘West is the Best’ and whoever is not westerner is a lesser human being, he said.

He said the West had different standards of treating human beings towards the Europeans and non-Europeans. German war criminals who massacred millions of civilians in gas chambers during the Second World War were treated with full protocol by the civilised West according to the Geneva Convention, he said adding that the story of the miseries of Muslim suspects in Guantanamo Bay was known to everyone. The IIUI rector, president and numerous scholars, intellectuals and IIUI teachers attended the lecture. staff report