Islam on the defensive: scholars contend criticism of Islam's links to terrorism oversimplify complex tradition - Special Report

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 14, 2001 by Margot Patterson

"One of the reasons America misunderstands Islam is that we've lost touch with the kind of devotion and self-sacrifice that traditional religion can evoke in its followers," Appleby told NCR.

In his essay Appleby writes that Muslim extremists hate Americans because we cast off orthodox Christianity in the 1960s for a materialistic, liberalized, compromising approach to faith, which they despise in their own co-religionists.

"They hate us, most of all, for ignoring them and for underestimating the power of their faith," Appleby writes. "And faith it is, however twisted, distorted, un-Islamic and sinful we deem its expression."

Related Web Site

Center for Christian-Muslim Understanding www.cmcu.net

Margot Patterson is senior writer for NCR. Her e-mail address is mpatterson@natcath.org