President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, while visiting Jordan, agreed with his host King Abdullah II that inter-civilizational dialogue is sorely needed, in order that the west understand that Islam is a peaceful, tolerant faith, in spite of the evidence.

Both men pledged to engage in a determined effort to educate westerners on Islam’s essentially benevolent aspect. A statement from the royal household read:

The Indonesian President praised Jordan’s efforts that seek to promote dialogue and understanding among civilizations and nations, particularly the Amman message which represents a solid base for explaining Islam’s real values and tolerance.

with SBY piping in with:

Indonesia vigorously supports such efforts which have the aim of bridging the gap between East and West and giving prominence to Islam’s role in serving human society.

Evidently Islam is misunderstood by the west, or it is held in less than high esteem for some reason. Is the reason ignorance, fear, bigotry? There are likely elements of these things but the real problem is of course the behaviour of Muslims themselves, and the texts on which they base their beliefs. It is the Muslims themselves who so often “misunderstand” their faith because the loose organisational structure of the religion, and the sometimes violent and incendiary content of its holy books, which are anchored in an archaic often unintelligible version of a backward language, provide such fertile ground for the “misunderstanding”.

In an ideal world Islam would just go as it is hardly fit for the twenty-first century but in the absence of such perfection on earth it would be wise of western leaders to wake themselves up to the inherent problems within this pseudo-religion and, armed with their new-found, but in fact age-old pre-existing knowledge, devise strategies to minimise the harm it can cause, and finally, see the attempts of Yudhoyono, Abdullah II, and their ilk for what they are, well-meaning but ignorant platitude offering of no interest, importance, or truth.

Tags: Religion