The Sept 11 attacks on America warrants an immediate effort by Islamic scholars to collectively write a new version of Islamic history with emphasis on its contribution to the world civilisation, Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) president Ahmad Azam Abdul Rahman said today.

Instead of highlighting past wars which led to Muslim conquest of the world, Islamic history books should focus on great Islamic civilisations for example, in Andalusia (Al Andarus) in Spain, in Baghdad and the Ottoman empire in Turkey, he said.

Azam told malaysiakini since the Sept 11 attacks, there have been ongoing campaigns to undermine the credibility of Islam as a religion of peace.

Instead, he said, Muslims worldwide are now being portrayed as terrorists and uncivilised people.

He said the study of Islamic history was first introduced during the heights of Islamic rule in Rome and Persia to counter political complacency among Muslims.

As an effort to revitalise the spirit of jihad (holy war) among Muslims, Arwah Ibn Zubir, the nephew of Prophet Muhammads wife, Aisyah, introduced a subject on Islamic history highlighting, among others, wars fought by Muslims during the Prophets time.

Positive perspective

Azam said following the Sept 11 attack, this type of syllabus only reinforced the negative impression non-Muslims had of Muslims.

I strongly believe that it is necessary for Muslim scholars to collectively rewrite the history of Islam with emphasis on its contribution to world civilisation.

It should give prominence to remarkable achievements of past Islamic empires which had contributed greatly to present world civilisation, he said.

This effort, he said, would provide a more positive perspective of Islam as a religion which promotes peace among the worlds communities.