COVERING ISLAM

FORM OF DIALOGUE FROM PETAR VENERABILIS UNTIL PRESENT

Abstract

The author takes the reader through historical course of intercultural and interreligious meeting and dialogues. This text offers the other side of the medal, i.e. meeting point of different cultures and civilizations viewed through often distorted mirror. This distorted mirror offered distorted image of the other and the different. Islamophobia, fear from the other and the different, spills over into an open, often violent hatred towards Islam and Muslims that exists from the early times to the present day. By taking us through the work of Edward Said Covering Islam, the author of this essay takes the reader through historical prism of non-objective discourse towards Islam from the time of Peter Venerabilis, Benedictine abbot from Clugny, to the contemporary islamophobics like Italian writer Oriana Fallaci, the members of various right-wing parties seated at the parliaments throughout EU such as Ms. Susanne Winter – key candidate of the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria in Graz or Mr. Geert Wilders – Dutch right-wing representative and leader of the right-wing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy. Nevertheless, there were some positive examples and objective views of Islam and Muslims offered by non-Muslims. The author includes some of the names such as Michael Hart, Hans Küng or Edward Said, himself.