Widening Gap

Yesterday I attended an interesting lecture by Professor Maurits Berger, a professor in Islam and the MiddleEast. The lecture was about the widening gap between the Arab and Islam world with the West. It is quite difficult (some say it is vey obvious)to understand why that is so. To start off there's a clear mistrust between the two groups. On one hand it is to do with 'Islamic tsunami' phenomenon since the 1980s where evidence of Arab and Islamic culture became more apparent on the European landscapes - women in veil, mosque minarets, increase migration and population segregations. On the other side is to do with Western influence tsunami such as increasing political influence, military interventions, media, music and lifestyle.

Another important fact is that most if not all the Arab countries were colonised before. So anything coming from the ex-colonial powers seems suspicious or difficult to accept. There are also clear cultural differences.There have been efforts to close the gap through cultural exchange, cooperation between people and so on. But the gap will remain and may be something that will exist forever that we have to live with. However, one of the most powerful influences to narrow the gap would be through acceptable and non-bias foreign policies of the West towards the Arab world.