Quote:
Originally Posted by Faydwyn  Could you elaborate on this? What might be the causes? What things in particular have led you to this conclusion? I’m not disagreeing necessarily; I think it’s quite possible, especially if the current trends continue, but you seem more certain than I am. |
You can always count on there being hardliners in every issue. Right wing politicians and religious extremists in this case. The worry that I have is that moderate people on both sides of the divide, are moving ever more to the right. Moderate muslims now see 'the west' as perhaps not an enemy just yet (although some certainly do), but something they need to be wary about. The extremists pray on these insecurities, and take anything that the opposition say or do and use it as a tool to further their claims that the world is against Islam. On the other hand, you have your average joe on the street, who was perhaps quite indifferent to the Islamic faith, now see it as a threat to peace and freedom, because of the terrorist attacks and everything they see and read. Now, these people have little or no knowledge of Islam (through no fault of their own, of course), so their opinions and political slant will be centre-right/right, as the mass market publications are traditionally right wing.
This will eventually lead, and in some cases has, to friction between communties inside certain countries like the UK and beyond.
The most prudent point I feel however, is that the Islamic faith tells of a war between Islam and the non-believers (I won't get into the exact details of it here), and although I don't believe this, I feel the extremists certainly do and are actively trying to bring it about, because they feel it is their duty. Now the scriptures or the Islamic holy books don't say when it will come about, but if I remember correctly it is a sign of the impending Apocalypse.
Essentially, people are getting stronger in their convictions due to them seeing things that further their own agendas, i.e. muslims seeing other muslims getting killed in the middle east, and non-muslims seeing muslims perpetrating terrorist activities, there's little middle ground left. I just wonder how long we can continue on this path, before it sets off something that can only be a war.
I really do hope I am wrong on all this, but unfortunately I'm a pretty pessimistic person so I can't help but believe I'm not.