Hijacked Islam - The Influence of Islam on American Foreign Policy (ePub)

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, Humboldt-University of Berlin, language: English, abstract: The events of September 11th 2001 were crucial in the history of the United States of America
because then, according to George W. Bush, "the first generation of students [...] witnessed a
war fought in America."1
However, the events that followed were more than a war. Put in the President's words, "this is
good versus evil."2 Obviously, the head of the United States sees his country's experience as
invested with a higher, quasi religious, meaning. While it is often bewildering to Europeans,
this way of understanding one's nation is shared by many citizens of the U.S.A.3
One way of explaining this is the concept of "civil religion" by Robert Bellah. According to
this concept, "Americans share common religious characteristics expressed through civil
religious beliefs, symbols, and rituals that provide a religious dimension to the entirety of
American life."4 It is "not [...] a form of national self-worship but [...] the subordination of
the nation to ethical principles that transcend it in terms of which it should be judged."5
Being only a religious dimension, American civil religion is no alternative to existing
religions; rather, there is a division of function.


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1 Bush, George W.. "President Launches 'Lessons of Liberty'". (October 30, 2001). May 23, 2006.
; The term "American" used by citizens
of the United States of America usually refers only to themselves and not to the other inhabitants of the
continent.
2 Bush, George W.. "International Campaign Against Terror Grows". (September 25, 2001). May 23, 2006.
.
3 Studies suggest that indeed, "a wide cross section of citizens do share such civil religious beliefs." Swatos,
William H.. "Encyclopedia of Religion and Society. Hartford Institute for Religion Research Hartford Seminary.
CIVIL RELIGION". (1998). May 23, 2006. .
4 Swatos 1998.
5 Bellah, Robert N.. "Civil Religion in America". Dædalus. Journal of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. "Religion in America" Vol. 96, No. 1, pp. 1-21. (Winter 1967). May 23, 2006.