is that true ............?

[rubusmubu]

Why is the “Muslims=others” factor important? I believe that this is related to the well-known psychological concept of “cognitive dissonance“. Cognitive (thought process) dissonance (tension) relates to the dynamic of the sharp discomfort we experience when we carry two conflicting thoughts in our minds at the same time. This dissonance increases when the importance of the subject increases, or when the two thoughts conflict more sharply, or when we are unable to explain away the conflict. For instance, smokers have to find all kinds of reasons to explain away what they know to be an unhealthy habit. To release the dissonance, we have to either change our behavior, justify our behavior by changing one of the conflicting cognitions, or justify by adding additional cognitions.

In his widely acclaimed books on Muslims in the West, Tariq Ramadan has written about being the “other”. He emphasizes a Muslim's responsibility to his community, whether it be Islamic or not. He criticizes the “us vs. them” mentality that some Muslims advocate against the West. He argues that European Muslims' reliance on an “external” Islam, fraught with cultural baggage, leaves them feeling inadequate in their own faith, leading to alienation from the larger society.

Ramadan also touches upon the crux of what I have mentioned here, about misplaced Western perceptions of Muslims, due to a community that has done a terrible job in representing itself. A community that has mixed cultural baggage with Islam, a community that has been overly defensive, and a community that has not sufficiently engaged with its majority hosts, the wider non-Muslim society.


Muslims should be allowed to commit themselves within society and to act in favour of human solidarity. This also means that Muslims can be engaged in social as well as political and economic activities. This is why, both at local and national levels, their commitment as Muslims and citizens is imperative for it is the sole way of completing and perfecting their Faith and the essential Message of their Religion. The social space, with its laws and customs, should permit them to attain this. [Ramadan, as quoted in Reading Tariq Ramadan: Political Liberalism, Islam, and "Overlapping Consensus"]