ABSTRACT
The images of Islam prevalent in the world are of brutality, fanaticism, hatred and disorder: Libyans killing policewomen in London, Palestinians hijacking passenger planes, Iranians seizing foreign embassies and Indonesians blowing up the Borobudur temple in Java. The very names of the Muslim leaders of our times-Khomeini, Gaddafi, Arafat-have become symbols of these images. It is V.S.Naipaul’s vision of Islam and Muslims (Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey, 1981): ‘Rage was what I saw…Muslims crazed by their confused faith.’
