Islam: Post 9/11: Jihadists and the Clash of Civilizations

REL

490

Islam: Post 9/11: Jihadists and the Clash of Civilizations

Islam, a religion practiced by over 1.6 billion people, has captured the headlines of every facet of the print, television, and broadcast media in the western world. This is due primarily to the emergence of what has been characterized as Islamist terrorism, a designation coined by the west to describe the violent acts of radical Muslims who have launched violent and indiscriminate attacks on western people and interests. These ominous and well-planned attacks of terror manifested themselves in their most deadly form in a series of brutal attacks the most virulent of which was the tragic attacks on the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001 where over 3000 people lost their lives. In response to these acts of terror, the U.S., Great Britain and the ?coalition of the willing? declared a global war on terror, first deposing the Taliban in Afghanistan, followed by the invasion of Iraq. This sequence of events exacerbated an already contentious relationship between Islam and the West. Is this present global conflict a fulfillment of Samuel Huntington?s thesis of the ?clash of civilizations?? According to many academics, politicians, religious leaders, a

Fall, Spring

Undergraduate

Yes

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