Social Science; Why is Religion Important for Social Scientists

Module code and title- FC005 Introduction to Social Science
Type of assignment- Essay
Assignment question- ‘Why is religion important for social scientists? Explain and refer to theories and cases from different countries.’

Word Count- 1074
Tutor’s name- Ernesto Gallo
City University student number- none
Submission date- 19th November 2014

In a world where political unrest has been witnessed since 2925 B.C (Dijournal, 2012), war and aggression have been proven to be prominent. People become more religious as religion in general is believed to guide a human being through moral means, political and legal laws. Despite religion’s function of assisting humanity in seeking inner and social peace (Herbert, 2011), corruption and misguidance are present on a large scale. This paradoxical relation will be examined.

Islam is the second largest religion with more than 1.6 billion followers and it is believed to be the fastest growing religion in the world (Pewresearch, 2013). Despite Islam being the religion that preaches love, peace, mercy and forgiveness (Islamcity, 2014), Islam has a terroristic image in the western world (Nate Jensen, 2010). This essay will explore the relationship between Islam and society, how Islam affects society and vice versa.

Considering the idea that Islam aims to promote humanitarian peace, gender equality, equality in living standards and love, it implicitly affects society. Islam advocates life principles such as forgiveness and mercy amongst individuals and urges Muslim followers to learn. This should ultimately lead to higher HDI values as a result of higher rates of student enrolment, higher and an increase in gender equality and lower rates of unemployment. The contrasting reality in Islamic states could be as a result of insufficient access to education and incompetence to develop. Yet between the 8th and the 13th century Islam experienced its golden age, where the Muslim world excelled in various aspects such as science, medicine, architecture and physics (Falagas, Samonis GS, Zarkadoulia, 2006). This has been justified by social scientists such as Samuel Huntington who states that: “The Islamic world from the eighth to the twelfth centuries, and Byzantium from the eighth to the eleventh centuries far surpassed Europe in wealth” (Huntington, 1996).

In modern days, predominantly post September 11, Islam seems to have taken a step back and the opposite has happened. Since then Islam has been portrayed as being “the religion of terrorism” by the western media (Nate Jensen, 2010), which has further distributed this image to the West. According to some social scientist, such as Samuel Huntington, Islam is a religion that promotes terrorism: “Islam 's borders are bloody and so are its innards” (Huntington, 1996). Yet, this could be deduced by political events initiated by extremists or misconceptions of Quranic passages, which have resulted from extractions out of context. Extremists may carry out catastrophic and devastating acts, which are then distributed by the western media constructing the misconception that Islamic extremists are the majority while they in fact are only a minority. The fallacy of ISIS representing Islam could be used to illustrate this idea. According to the CIA, the organisation has a total of 31,500 fighters (CIA 2014). Statistically this means that it compromises 0.002% of the world’s Muslim population and so it is not feasible to generalize this minority.

Muslim immigrants, predominantly in the U.S and in Europe have had a significant influence on the contemporary world. Firstly, there has been a change in perception about Islam and Muslims. The alteration of this could be due to the disappearing of critical concepts and terms such as Jihad and desert tent culture. The misconception of Arab and Muslim being synonyms has also been raised. However, the involvement of Muslims in society has introduced new vocabulary and names into other cultures such as ‘mosque’, and ‘Ramadan’. Secondly, Muslims have influenced intermarriages in the West. Muslim immigrants are more likely to find partners that follow the same religion. These marriages bring forth a new generation of Muslims that live in the West and have traits of both cultures. Third, the presence of Muslim immigrants has affected the finance of the local western societies. Muslim immigrants have additionally influenced education and services, especially in the Unites States. There are over 25,000 Muslim medical doctors serving in the U.S hospitals (Ali, none). The authority of Muslims has furthermore enriched architectural landscapes (Islamcity, 2014). Mosques in the traditional Muslim architecture are being planned and built all cross North America.

Islam solely cannot be changed only Muslims can change; this is because Islam is a written constitution that is seen as the divine message of god and humans can mentally and physically adapt to their surroundings. This is contrasted with other religions however, such as Christianity, in which amendments are permitted. Figuratively speaking, speaking about Islam today has become a penetrative and sensitive subject that is comparative to touching a raw wound. Because of political intervention in Muslim countries, economic recession, poverty and wars, the wound worsens. Islam needs an antidote, this is when Muslims began to change and adapt to their surroundings covering the wound. According to Irshad Manji, the problems with Islam today are Muslims themselves. Muslims have allowed tribal affairs to take over their faith of Islam (politicalawareness1 2013). Some scholars today argue that the rule “don 't judge a book by its cover” is not applied when looking at Islam, yet in fact, it’s the reverse: people tend to judge Islam by the Muslims instead of studying the Quran simply because it is easier to take the road less travelled (politicalawareness1 2013). From another point of view, Edward Said the creator of the theory “Orientalism”, stated that “Orientalism” is “the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient” (Said, 1979). Edward Said examined how the west mainly Europe portrayed the Arab society in an ethnocentric or Eurocentric point of view. As a result of this, Arabs felt the need to acclimatize in order to suit the western lifestyle. For this reason, there now are different types of Muslims such as: moderate Muslims; open minded Muslims; liberal Muslims and Salafi Muslims.

In conclusion, it has been established that there are many external influences such as culture and tradition involved in the relationship between religion and society. This paper has confirmed that firstly, misconceptions have been formed about the terroristic image of the religion, which influences the identity of Modern day Islam. Secondly, the westernization of Islamic immigrants as well as the actions of the extremist minority groups has worsened this image and has hindered the development of its community. Thirdly, the immigration of Islamic communities, especially in the United States, to the West has contributed to the enrichment of agriculture, medical and technical development.

Bibliography

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