Many who are talking about the Islamic renaissance are also trying to get the European experience to guide their efforts. We need to realise that contrary to conventional historiography what happened in Europe beginning in the fourteenth century was that a dark age ended and another one began. We are still living under it.
The period of colonialism was a big crash in which the ‘ship of Islam’ was destroyed. In the immediate aftermath, survival was the main goal, and people came with whatever lifeboats they could. Now is the time to pick up the pieces and build the ship again. The problem is we have been living in the lifeboats for so long, we are confusing them with the ship.
While the West has made great progress in racial harmony, there is still a long road ahead of us to reach our destination when all people are judged on the content of their character and not on the color of their skin nor their religious allegiances.
Christians brought up in the West are often surprised to discover Muslims who are familiar with the life and teachings of Jesus through the teachings and scriptures of Islam, while they themselves are unlikely to have learned anything about the Prophet Muhammad at church.
Islam stands firmly against terrorism. Islam views such acts as crimes of the worst type because they are aimed at defenseless civilians. Islam condemns such operations without hesitation. Nothing can justify the perpetration of the heinous crime of suicide bombing and no argument can be put to justify it in the name of Islam.