Changing Perspectives on the Arabs, Saracens and Islam from the Old English to the Middle English Period
On 22 October 1997, a report was published by the Runnymede Trust entitled Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All.[1] The report addresses a variety of issues concerning Islam in the British context. As Hugh Goddard points out in the introduction to A History of Christian-Muslim Relations, several of...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2014
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| In: |
The Journal of Rotterdam Islamic and Social Sciences
Year: 2014, Volume: 5, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-39 |
| Further subjects: | B
Changing Perspectives on the Arabs
B Saracens and Islam |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | On 22 October 1997, a report was published by the Runnymede Trust entitled Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All.[1] The report addresses a variety of issues concerning Islam in the British context. As Hugh Goddard points out in the introduction to A History of Christian-Muslim Relations, several of the observations made by British media and reviewers about the report gave the impression that the proclaimed concern about Islam was a contemporary one.[2] When interviewed and asked about ethnic minority citizens in the Royal Navy, a British naval officer answered, somewhat ironically, "Where would you pray to Mecca on a submarine?" suggesting that Muslims have no place in the military.[3] what the naval officer seemed to miss, however, was that England’s history with Islam and the Orient stretches back from the present era right through to England’s formative period. From the very English of Englishmen Bede to Ælfric, Chaucer, Adelard of Bath, Richard the Lionheart, the English had always had a fervent relationship with Islam. Even in the very heart of Parliament, in St. Stephen’s Hall, which connects the House of Commons to the House of Lords, there are two monumental canvases of a series of eight that have Islam as their subject.[4] The eight canvases were commissioned in 1927 by Lord Crawford, chairman of the Fine Arts Commission and J.H. Whitley. The Speaker of the House of Commons appointed Sir Henry Newbolt to fill an empty space on the wall. Newbolt wanted the wall to depict a unifying theme, i.e., "The Building of Britain." The two paintings that deal with Islam are Richard I leaving for the the Holy Land, i.e., the crusades, and Sir Thomas Roe at the Court of Ajmir, India. Therefore, to perceive England’s interaction with Islam as a contemporary and irrelevant issue seems to be a historical reductio ad absurdum. |
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| ISSN: | 2199-6172 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The Journal of Rotterdam Islamic and Social Sciences
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