ABSTRACT
Two key themes most distinctly characterize the Muslim perception of its relationship with the West: the reversal of Islamic civilization's long preeminence and a broad sense among Muslims that they are under siege from the West and are operating from a position of weakness and vulnerability. The Christian reconquest of Spain, in a centuries-long process from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, stands out in Muslim minds as the single most stunning and grievous loss. Christianity seriously encountered Islam at the political level when expanding Islamic power in the seventh century met the Eastern Christian Byzantine empire based in Constantinople, which had extended at various times deeply into Middle East. Christians immediately viewed Islam as a Christian heresy. The sense of community abides as a strong feature of the psychology of Islam, in which grievances from one region can affect the attitudes of Muslims elsewhere.
