Touchy Issues in Muslim - West Relations: An Attempt at an Overview

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the sour relationship underlying Muslims and their Western counterparts; a relationship that spanned several centuries and traversed regions and climes. The paper surveys the long years of contact between Islam and the West and shows how, despite the long years of contact and interactions, the relationship has continued to remain sour, not so cordial and often replete with conflict, clashes and at times, wars and bloodshed. The paper surveys this age-old relation and shows how it is punctuated by animosity, mutual distrust, bigotry, fear and uneasy calm. The Paper concludes by debunking the treachery, the sinister motives as well as the pathological hatred of anything Muslim and Islamic that is often exhibited by the West on the nation of Islam.