West must understand Islam

Last week I was given the opportunity to talk with foreign policy analyst Geneive Abdo, whose current research focuses on contempory Iran and political Islam and who helps policy-makers understand the political climate in these parts of the world.

I have to admit I didn't totally agree with everything she said but it did open my eyes to other points of view.

As a journalist for over 20 years, Ms Abdo's work focused largely on the Middle East and Muslim world and saw her spend three years in Iran as a correspondent for the likes of the Guardian and the Economist as well as the International Herald Tribune, covering stories ranging from student rebels and jailed dissidents to clerics under house arrest, which gave the outside world an insight into a regime that is largely clouded in secrecy.

Most of us will look at Iran and assume that President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is the man in control but, Ms Abdo believes that although Ahmedinejad is the visual head of state, it is in fact Ayatollah Khomenei who holds the most power. I have to admit that I don't really know enough to agree or disagree but it certainly seems to make sense and, whichever way one looks at it, one thing Ms Abdo said that rang true was that there has been a long history of misunderstanding between Iran and the Western world.

To my way of thinking, both sides have made so many assumptions about the reasons behind each other's actions that it's going to be a very hard task to find some common ground.

In the West, we're so used to thinking of Iran as the enemy, that we find it almost impossible to believe its actions aren't dictated by ulterior motives.

Nuclear power is a good case in point. The idea that Iran is so close to having nuclear capabilities is a frightening one for all of us and our assumption is that the Iranians want it in order to be able attack their enemies. But in Ms Abdo's view, is it too much of a stretch of the imagination to consider that they, like the rest of the world, find it important for deterrence and defence?

Iran sees countries like Pakistan and Israel which already have nuclear capabilities and feels there is a double standard being held against it and that the reason it is being targeted is because it's an Islamic state.

I couldn't fail to admit it to myself as a possibility. Iran may not see things the way we in the West are used to seeing them but it has a very sophisticated understanding of global politics and is doubtless just as aware as the rest of us of the disaster a nuclear war would be.

Moving on from the topic of Iran and on to that of the rising tensions between the Islamic diaspora and the Western societies they live in, Ms Abdo's opinion was that: "I think generally the problem is that Muslims feel discrimination in Europe, such as job discrimination, access to education and in the case of some countries, like Norway, there has been citizenship testing that Muslims object to so it's a whole host of factors and circumstances that contribute to the problem.

It's at this point that mine and Ms Abdo's views seemed to differ the most. Coming from England where actions like the banning of Christmas lights and celebrations is imposed in some cities in order to not to offend Muslims and other religions - which in turn are freely allowed to put up Eid and Diwali lights and decorations - it's hard for me to agree that the discrimination is as bad as it's made out to be.

Looking at the problem from the other side, it seems to me that maybe a large part of the tensions arise from the very fact that more and more laws favour the Muslim community at the expense of our own.

Whereas in this part of the world there is very much an attitude towards non-Muslims of 'If you don't like the way we do things, leave' - for the record, an attitude I fully agree with by the way.

Having spent the majority of my life in this part of the world I have come to love and respect its culture and beliefs and on one thing Ms Abdo and I can agree on; there is without a doubt a need for the Western world to understand Muslim societies for what they are, rather than trying to turn them into the Western ideal of what they think they should be.