The image of Islam

A historiographical study of Islam in Swedish research.

A society`s image of a foreign people, culture and religion changes constantly depending on social, political and other important events. Today Islam is the second largest religion in Sweden after Christianity and that is why it has become important to study the Swedish image of Islam, Muhammed and the Islamic world during the last century. This study is a historiographical and examines the work of six different Swedish authors between the year 1918 to 1930 and 1979 to 2011. The aim of studying these works is to examine whether there has been changes in the Swedish view of Islam, Muhammed and Muslim societies. The theoretical starting point of this study is based on the economist Amartya Sen`s view on identity as multidimensional. According to Sen, a too strong emphasis on ethnic, cultural and religious identities tends to create antagonism and conflicts between different group of peoples. That is why, according to Sen, it is important to emphasize the similarities between different cultures instead of only focus on their differences. Also, Samual P. Huntington`s thesis that emphasizes the differences between religious civilizations in the world who struggle for power and influence is used in this study. The investigation shows that there are differences between the authors from 1918 to 1930 and 1979 to 2011 in their description of Islam, Muhammed and Muslim societies. While the older authors focus mostly on Islam`s past, the contemporary authors deal mostly with Islam in present times. The investigation also demonstrates that the older authors in general give a positive description of Islam`s earlier history, while they depict Islam and Muslim societies as stagnant and reactionary in modern times. The result confirms earlier studies who show similar tendencies on description of Islamic and other Non-Western societies.