Author: ÖMER KEMAL ŞAHİN

Publisher: Cinius Yayınları

Published: 2022-09-01

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 6258330975

This research seeks to examine the root causes of Western anti-Islamic antagonism in the three main realms of the West, i.e. Judaism, Christianity and the secular. To achieve this goal, it first focuses on the Jewish and Christian scriptures and perceptions in chronological order. Their respective manifestations in history are introduced encompassing the Medīna period, age of Islamic conquests, Middle Ages, Early Modern Period and Contemporary Period. Since the literature hardly conceptualises “Jewish” or “Christian” anti-Islamism as such, relevant knowledge was extracted from the present literature and put into a coherent narrative. The findings indicate that Jewish and Christian scriptures, particularly the passages about Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael and contents concerning eschatology, make anti-Islamic interpretations possible. Jewish anti-Islamic antagonism is observed to primarily stem from the ethnocentric self-perception and eschatological agenda of Judaism, whereas Christian antiIslamic antagonism from the ontological instability and eschatological scenarios of Christianity. In the subsequent chapter, the research examines the secular antagonism towards Islam and Muslims. The secular is approached in a theoretical framework of three levels that are paradigm, people and society. According to findings, secular antiIslamism appears to originate from the ideals of the secular to imagine a people, society and world order free of religion. The final chapter consists of evaluation of the findings and concrete suggestions to tackle the problem of Western anti-Islamism. Root Causes of Anti-Islamic Antagonism argues for a deep-rooted approach to anti-Islamism studies and suggests that it is a scholarly necessity to focus on these three main realms in the West to understand the anti-Islamic phenomena properly.