کد خبر: ۱۲۸۸۰۳۵

تاریخ: ۲۴ شهريور ۱۳۹۲ - ۰۹:۳۴

Dual Use of “Islamism”, West’s Concealed Way of Hostility towards Muslims

Islamism in English and French dictionaries has no other definition than adherence to Islam, but recently anti-Islamic groups have changed the meaning of the word.

Eminent French scholar and Islamologue Yahya Bono made the remark on Saturday, September 14, while speaking at a forum in Tehran titled “Contemporary Islamology Studies in France’s Academic Circles”.

He said anti-Islamic groups that seek pretexts to attack Islam, say they do not oppose Islam but oppose Islamism.

He said in French dictionaries, the word Islamic is written in two forms, with a capital letter and a lower case letter.

“When written with capital letter, it refers to the Islamic civilization and otherwise it means the religion of Islam. There is another word, that is Islamism, which refers to Islam. In English and French dictionaries, this word has no other definition than adherence to Islam.

“But recently, anti-Islamic groups that seek excuses to attack Islam say they are against Islamism and not Islam. Interestingly, they never provide an accurate definition of the word.”

Mr. Yahya Bono said while the word Islamism was first used by Arab Muslims to refer to Islam itself, some Westerners have tried to separate it from Islam whereas it has no other meaning than Islam.

Further in his remarks, the French researcher said different views about Islam have existed in the West that should be considered within four historical periods, namely the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Colonialism era, and the Post-colonialism era.

He said historians believe that in the Middle Ages, a period between the ancient times and the Renaissance, there was a lack of intellectuality but during the Renaissance intellectuality entered the society and as a result a struggle began with the east, Orthodox Christianity and at time the entire Christianity.

“Therefore, the difference between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was quite an ideological one.”

The Muslim convert noted that historians divide the world in the Middle Ages into Latinas, Greeks and Arabs. “These were not three races but the division was based on the languages they wrote in. That is why Avicenna was considered to be Arab because he wrote in Arabic.”

Mr. Bono noted that the first translation of the Quran was rendered in the Middle Ages. “In this period, there was no understanding about Islam and Christian missionaries wanted to know Islam to fight it. That is why the first translation of the Word of God had many errors and it was actually a summary of the verses of the Quran in Latin which was used by the Orientalists for five centuries.”

He said during the Renaissance, the conditions of Islamic studies changed and orientalism, in its true sense started.

He said orientalism is not about geography but it is about ideology. “In other words, the West in the Renaissance referred to every country or group that lacked the intellectuality present in Europe as orient.

The French scholar said the third period, which was colonialism, began in 1830 with the occupation of Algeria by France. He stated that Orientalism in this period became completely ideological and confrontation between Western intellectualism and the religious ideas in other parts of the world became more evident.

He said in this period the West described Islam as lacking spirituality and intellectuality in order to be able to spread the Western culture in the target societies. “Of course, Louis Massignon rejected such a description and underlined that the Quran is a majo0r example of intellectuality and spirituality in the world. Also, Henry Corbin refuted the idea that Shia Islam is a mere political movement… and discussed the spiritual aspects of this school of thought.”

Yahya Bono concluded by saying that in the current century, the Post-colonialism era, there are two major groups in the West that oppose Islam, first biased Catholics and second the advocates of secularism.

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