Introduction Summary and Analysis

Religion became more important by the end of the twentieth century, after a period in the 1950s and 1960s when many felt that religion had been out grown. There was a revival of sorts in most of the major religions, and people began to adopt the religions of other cultures like Zen and Buddhism. Christians and Jews began working together. The religion of Islam was excluded from most of this and is basically viewed with hostility in the West.

The challenge of Islam to the West dates back to the Ottoman Empire which conquered much of Europe. The Muslim Empire was viewed with fear and the Prophet Muhammad was viewed as the Great Pretender. Islam was viewed as a violent religion. The views that the Europeans developed during the period of the Crusades carried over into the present day and became...