European Identity and the Myth of Islam: A Reassessment
Author(s)
Rich, Paul
Abstract
Questions the post-Cold War tendency to regard Islam as the greatest defining factor in the development of European identity and suggests the role of culture is given too much emphasis while the effect of interstate power politics on international relations is largely ignored. The article examines the interactions between Europe and Islam during the medieval crusades and the Ottoman Empire, suggesting that the Cold War notion of “Islamic threat” has encouraged historians to give the Islamic resistance to Christendom and European imperial expansion an exaggerated role in the formation of European identity.
