It is said that the West only began to be curious and learn about Islam after the terrorist attacks. An eyewitness at The Hague Conference said that two interesting things occurred during the conference.
The first was the presence of a large number of intellectuals who knew little about Islam. The second was the Westerners who admitted that they had learned something new — that the Islamic Shariah is more advanced than many laws on the books in advanced countries, even covering such fields as electronic business. Dr. Mohammed Abu Al-Ainain, secretary-general of the Arab Arbitration Union, spoke about the Hague Conference when he returned to the Kingdom. He said it was too bad that such dialogue and interaction had been largely disconnected.
Their absence leaves the West having to rely for its information about Islam on the wrong sources. I asked Dr. Mohammed about the role of Islamic Centers, financially supported by Muslim countries, in the West. I was shocked and horrified to learn what little impact these centers have — with the reason being that those who are sent to staff them lack fluency in the language of the country so are unable to achieve anything. How can a preacher be successful if he cannot speak the language of those he is preaching to? At the same time, the preachers and staff members have not been taught how to approach non-Muslims.
Customs vary from place to place and a preacher going to a foreign land should be aware of how things are done there. The final — and perhaps most serious problem — is that those sent to staff the centers often transfer their own political, regional and sectarian conflicts to the West which ends by creating confusion and uncertainty among the non-Muslim population. Once when I was in Europe, I visited an Islamic center and to my amazement, I saw three groups of people praying separately in the same mosque.
Where is the unity of Islam? What kind of impression does this make on non-Muslims? It should be clear from these points what hinders the spread of Islam.