Introduction

Abstract

A plane drives into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, another into the Pentagon in Washington and thousands perish in the flames and debris that engulf them. The perpetrators are young Muslim men and their leader has declared a jihad against the West. In balmy Bali as thousands of tourists enjoy a relaxing vacation, a bomb is detonated by a Muslim militant, killing and maiming people in an attack hailed by its perpetrators as a jihad. In Kabul, Afghanistan thousands of women are banned from working and confined to their homes; a form of house arrest designed to deny them their rights. They are discriminated against in the name of Islam by a ruling regime known as the Taliban. In the Russian city of Beslan, Islamic terrorists waging jihad in the name of Chechen freedom massacre hundreds of school children. News stations across the globe broadcast reports that Muslim militants in Iraq have murdered Western hostages such as the British–Irish aid worker, Margaret Hassan. In London home-grown suicide bombing attacks lead to national soul searching and major legislative changes affecting all aspects of life in the United Kingdom. Is it any wonder then that in the opening decade of the twenty-first century, Islam is defined and understood as a phenomenon of monotheistic faith associated with fear, violence and terrorism? Such a view was summed up in an editorial that appeared in the wake of the Beslan massacre.