Through the centuries, since the founding of Islam, Christians and Muslims have almost never been able to see eye to eye. After decades of colonialism and orientalism, the Muslim East and the Christian West were left at a great divide. Whereas most Muslims view Christian Westerners as fellow practitioners, or “people of the book,” many Europeans (and Americans) view Muslims as inferior to the Christian man. From the earliest days of Muslim practice, to the period of Muslim rule in Spain, to present-day society, Christians and Muslims have struggled to coexist in a frenzied world. Through arguments seen in Muslim Spain, as well as arguments seen by Fundamentalist Christians such as Franklin Graham today, it is clear that the modern-day Fundamentalist …show more content…
After the notion of the Christian Trinity was established by the Holy Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD, all who lived within the borders of Rome and opposed this notion, primarily the Unitarians, were cast out and/or forced to practice their beliefs in hiding. In the 8th Century A.D., an Islamic military force comprised of Muslims and the Unitarians invaded the Iberian Peninsula and began a conquest of what we know today as Spain. A small Muslim army arrived on the southern shores of Iberia in the year 711 and by 720 almost the entire peninsula was under Muslim control. Many Christian Westerners like to classify this conquest as fuel for the negative view of Muslims. Still, this war is a very complex conflict that cannot be classified into “Islam vs. Christianity” or “East vs. West.” Many scholars today attribute the European and American Christian misunderstanding of Islam to the distance that separated the two distinct cultures. Still the Christians of Spain, who were forced to live within Islamic borders, elected to close their minds to the new religion and reacted with hostility against it, a hostility that still remains in existence throughout the West till this …show more content…
This quote holds true from the medieval period through to today. Christianity remains the main religion of Europe and America, and although Islam can account for millions of followers, there remains a consistently negative image/stereotype of Islam and its followers. Throughout history the Christian attitudes toward Muslims has been largely negative. Still, this negative image was not always so. In the beginning, Muhammad and his followers had two encounters that showed tolerance and acceptance on the part of the Christians. The Christian king of Abyssinia offered refuge to new Muslims fleeing persecution from Mecca, “being persuaded of their religious sincerity”(Ernst, pg.13). Another well-known encounter is that of Muhammad and the Christian monk Bahira who is said to have recognized in Muhammad the signs of a prophet. Yet, this tolerance on the part of the Christian Westerners did not last long. Throughout the middle ages, all of the characteristics of the prophet Muhammad that confirmed his authenticity in the eyes of Muslims were reversed by Christian authors and turned into defects. The biggest difficulty for Christians was the notion that there could be a new prophet after Jesus. Muslims on the other hand revere Jesus as a prophet of God, though not the Son of God. A large part of the negative imagery towards Muslims during the middle ages was due to the multiple Christian Crusades of the