Why am I always misunderstood?

Consider this scenario; you turn on the telly and the first thing you see is some ultra Christian elements laden with kalashnikovs, while chanting biblical passages at the same time, having a Muslim hostage right in front of them, and threatening to kill him. The very next day, you see some other ultra-leftist Christian elements taking the responsibility of crashing a plane into the Burj-ul-Khalifa building, while on some other channel, yet another Christian element declares a crusade on the Muslim world. What will be your reaction toward the wider Christian world as a whole? Most of us will tend to regard Christianity as a religion that teaches hatred, most will consider Christians as extremists, while others will simply denounce them, and their Jihadi sentiments will materialize if this particular trend of “Christian Terrorism” is continued.

Even when the above mentioned events are not taking place, we still tend to treat the West as a conspiring enemy that is always trying to derail and destroy us. The other day, I was reading a blog by a well-educated expert who happened to be a Pakistani. The blog said that the recent floods were caused by HAARP (an alleged super weather control weapon that the U.S. has). It was later revealed that most flooding was caused because of several feudal lords who deliberately broke dams to save their lands in a way that flooded the nearby lands. The damage would have been limited, however, due to this act, destruction was multiplied tenfold. Based on the above mentioned scenario, it looks almost justifiable that most of us would have reached the conclusion in which we would have deeply felt suspicious of all Christians living within our countries, and all immigrants coming to Muslim countries would have been eyed with suspicion.

Now, coming back to reality, are not most people in the name of Islam doing the same thing as the above mentioned fictional account? An average Westerner does not know what true Islam is or who a Muslim is. Of course, the wise among us will argue that the current terrorism that is unfortunately linked with Islam is in reality quite contrary to the teachings of Islam, but that average Joe who likes his Coke and hamburger, does he really care about what the true teachings of Islam are? He will only take it on its face value, which is linked to terrorism, unfortunately.

I think it is almost absurd to call the Western narrow-mindedness absurd. It is up to a certain extent justifiable. When we can call them goras and call them names on their backs, when we can suspect them and treat them as our moral enemies all the time, then we must not feel surprised when we are reciprocated in the same way.

I do not know how we can project a positive image of ourselves, but I think the Western narrow-mindedness is justifiable to a certain extent as we would have done the same thing if we were in their place. However, what I do know is, the key to solving this problem is to think by putting ourselves in their shoes.