French Scholar: “The West Sees Islam not as a Different Culture but as an Existential Threat”

French Scholar: “The West Sees Islam not as a Different Culture but as an Existential Threat”
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French scholar and specialist in Eastern studies, Olivier Roy, in an analytical interview observed that the Western view of Islam has shifted from seeing it as a cultural or civilisational difference to treating it as an existential threat.

According to the Shia Waves Agency, quoting an interview in Al Jazeera, Roy traces this attitude back to the post-colonial era, when orientalism transformed from a scholarly discipline into a tool of cultural domination. The West, he warned, has reduced Islam to a purely religious phenomenon — and even to a challenge to freedom — whereas the real crisis stems from within Western societies themselves: the erosion of democratic, justice-based and social values, not from the presence of Muslims.

Roy emphasised that the only way to counter these misinterpretations and international tensions is through a proper understanding of Islam and a cultural engagement based on mutual respect.