The Gulf War in 1991 was also another major reason for the growth of hatred against the West, especially the US. The majority of Muslims did not give much attention to the fact that Iraq had been the first aggressor, having attacked and taken over Kuwait.
Rather, they resented the US, UK, and other European countries for attacking Iraq, and they also disdained the West for imposing various sanctions against Iraq, and subsequently Iran, as well for the threat of nuclear weapons being manufactured by them.
Not understanding the details, most Muslims, simply supported Khomeini and Saddam because they were Muslims, who in the eyes of many Muslims were heroes standing up against Western aggression.
In recent years, the majority of Muslims also felt that the ousting of Gaddafi and the uprising in Egypt were all instigated by the US and the West in order to create instability among Muslim nations, without conceding the fact that these leaders were indeed tyrants and oppressors who brutally treated Muslim inhabitants in their own countries.
On top of all of these historical factors comes the sweeping generalisation that all Western countries are the same. All countries where Christianity dominates, and nations with Caucasian population are viewed as one and the same, in much the same way that the West perceives all Muslims and Arabs to be the same.
Many Muslims began to feel that they needed to regain their dominance in the world, and felt that the way to do that would be to try and become a united superpower, completely ignoring the innumerable political and cultural differences between the different countries with Muslim populations.
Those who held this view to an extreme extent began to work towards creating extremist organisations comprised of Muslims of various countries with the aim of popularising the idea of establishing a Caliphate similar to what the Ottomans and Seljuks had.
And then of course we need to mention the disaster of 9-11, which is controversial, as many Americans themselves claim that it could have been an “inside job” done to find an excuse to invade Iraq for its oil.
Obviously, in reaction to all this, Americans and the West over-reacted on the Muslims living within their countries peacefully and wrought considerable harassment upon them. The general people began to fear and loathe all Muslims and behave in a rather harsh manner towards them.
And on top of all of these historical and political reasons, comes the fact that staunch Muslims find many aspects of Western lifestyle to be in harsh contradiction to the values they feel are Islamic, in their strict view of Islam.
From drinking alcohol and consumption of pork, both of which are forbidden in Islam, to free intermingling between genders, to casual sexual relations between men and women as well as homosexuality, adultery and fornication, to simple things as wearing more revealing attire, and content in entertainment and music -- are all aspects of life where the West is perceived to be not only very different, but in contradiction to Islam.
So indeed, there is a lot that stands as a division between a big proportion of Muslims and the West, and this is being further intensified by preaching hatred and misconceptions on both ends.
Indeed, the gesture shown by Europe by opening its borders to Syrian refugees is a very big step towards reconciling these differences and building bridges of friendship.
And this is a process that needs to be strongly supported from both ends. Muslims need to be encouraged to applaud and appreciate this gesture, and more people of the West need to be discouraged from viewing this as a risky thing to do.
At the Western end, there needs to be a strong realisation that by looking into the historical situations mentioned, it is a fact that in almost all of those situations, it was the Muslims who ended up giving up conquered and long-occupied territories, or being more badly beaten at warfare or battles.
The West does need to realise that since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, almost 200,000 Iraqis were killed in direct conflict with the US and allied forces and subsequently several more hundreds of thousands people were killed in the civil war between different factions within Iraq. Over 100,000 civilians have also died in Afghanistan in the last 13 years.
Even if some Muslim fanatics were responsible for the 911 attacks, and including all other acts of terrorism, the total number of people killed by terrorists who happened to be Muslim would not exceed a few thousand.
So, in response to that, having killed, or caused the deaths of over 120 times that number of Muslims who may not have been directly related to these acts of terrorism, has been more than adequate retaliation and enough of a display of power and military supremacy. So, to end this vicious cycle, the West should ideally come forward and do more than just the support Syrian refugees to make the Muslim masses firmly believe that the West does indeed want peaceful co-existence.
It is the opinion of many Muslims, that if the West would stop penetrating into the Muslim countries on various pre-texts, and if they would gather around and help reach a concrete solution between Israel and Palestine, and reduce the “extra caution” exercised when interacting with common Muslims living and working in their countries, gradually the trust and friendship that seemed to exist earlier in the 80s may slowly be re-instated.
At the Muslim end, it is high time that more preachers come out and vocally denounce violence and terrorism as is already happening, but such reconciliatory and peaceful preaching needs to be heightened. Muslims must be encouraged to appreciate the gesture being shown by the Europeans and the West in supporting the refugees of Syria.
The understanding has to be driven into the minds of all Muslims that it is not logically possible to conceive or even hope that everyone can be converted into Islam, and neither would it be possible to forcefully convert the rest of the world using military tactics, nor can all non Muslims be eradicated.
Extremist Muslims who hold such views must be made to realise that attempting such ideas will unify the rest of the world against Muslims and lead to possible obliteration of all its followers. It is time to preach that Muslims cannot hate people whose lifestyle is different from what is taught in Islam.
Rather, Muslims should be encouraged to identify all the good things that non-Muslims do, and all the contributions they have made to scientific and medical advancements leading to an upgraded quality of life that the world has now, thanks to their work.
It has to be recognised that underneath the more superfluous differences, that Muslims and the West are all people, and that certain instincts and values remain the same across civilisations and cultures.
Muslim preachers need to be trained to teach people to lead a good life and to inspire more people into following such a life by seeing the benefits of it, rather than teaching followers of Islam to loathe those who do not belong to the same religion.
If it would only be possible for the people and the governments of the West, and the people and the governments of Muslim countries and the preaching classes, to embrace and implement the changed practices recommended here, and if both sides could be penitent for their contributions to the tensions that have been caused over the centuries, then, hopefully, by the Grace of the Almighty who surely does not condone such violence, the world could look forward to a peaceful future.