EnglishIsWesternCivilizationUniversalPage39

38 New World were unknown to them. The universality of Islam and the civilization it produced is all the more remarkable because all this was achieved without the assistance of any of the modern, mechanical means of communication and transportation. Most of the major historic religions and non-Western civilizations were and still are, parochial, Judaism and Hinduism being among the most extreme, excluding outsiders on principle. Even Christianity, which is supposed to be an international proselytising faith with organized missionary activity everywhere, is inextricably bound up with the history of Europe and shaped by its cultural atmosphere. To prove that, historically, Western civilization and Christianity are inseparable, a prominent American missionary writes: The Roman Catholic and Protestant missionary is not simply a Christian: he is always a Western Christian, carrying with him the fresh and modern outlook of the western world as well as the Gospel of Christ. The missionary never fails to identify his Christian faith with Progress and social concern, which Eastern religions seldom include.¹ Thus historic Christianity and Western cultural and political imperialism are inseparable.

The universality of Islam is proclaimed at the outset by the Divine revelation of the Qur’an:

O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female and have made you nations and tribes that you may know and understand one another. Lo! the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the one who is most righteous. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware. (LIX:15)

The Qur’an also repeatedly refers to the different races, colours and languages of mankind as among the signs of Divine Creation.