ABSTRACT
Adequate recognition of many family struggles within the modern Muslim family should begin with an examination of their colonial history along with the impact incurred through the actions of European countries and Russian towards Muslims in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. Similar to locating fault lines in order to determine where earthquakes are apt to develop, examining the history of the people affected, particularly who did what to whom, helps explain Muslim family identity and many relational and cultural issues they currently face. It can also explain the animosity between Muslims and the West and the advent of terrorism executed by extreme Islamist groups against generally the West and particularly the United States. This concept is of explicit consequence during therapy with Muslim families because the therapist may harbor stereotypes and categorizations that may in turn be eliminated through an understanding of the relevant colonial history.
