Different lenses

As a Western civilization, we Americans are always trying to force our opinions and our beliefs onto others. In reading Harris' article about the violent advancement of Islamic religion, I got the distinct impression this is exactly what he was trying to do, put the views of Western civilizations onto the Muslim people and their religious beliefs. Harris talks about how the Muslims "expect victory in this world" (p.111) and that they will do anything, especially committ acts of war and violence under the principle of jihad (the holy war) to further their religion. What Harris says about the deliberation of the Muslims to invole their religion on the rest of the world to me seems oddly reminiscent of some of the ways Americans have tried to impose their traditions and religious beliefs on other peoples in the past.

The concept of "manifest destiny" in early American history is one of these examples. The American settlers continued to move throuhgout the country which they believed to have a rightful claim over. They took over other peoples already settled and set in their own beliefs and ways because that was what God intended for the American, Christian, settlers to do when they reached America. It was their duty and their destiny to spread their beliefs all over the new land, regardless of who they crushed on the way. Surely this concept is not all that different from what harris is proposing about the advancement of Islam.

It seems to me that throughout the ages every civilization or culture has been guilty of attempting to spread their own beliefs and values to others. The problem lies in that an individual culture tries too hard to see different cultures and religions through their own lens which is undoubtably biased from the history of their own peoples and their beliefs. Harris invokes a double standard on Muslims for doing what every other culture, including American, has done throughout time. the only reason Harris views what the Muslims are trying to do as wrong is because it is another culture, rather than his own, trying to impose their beliefs on us. We would have no problem busting in and placing our values on them. From our standpoint and through our lens we are only doing what is right. But according to the Muslims, what they are doing is right for them. By no means am I in support of violence and the imposition of beliefs on other people. However, I merely want to realize that who is right and who is wrong all depends on your point of view and the lens through which you view the world.