<p>In many countries, especially in the United States of America, and increasingly since 9/11, Islam seems to be responsible for numerous acts of terrorism. In this thesis, I will try to understand</p>
<p>and explain the religion of Islam and its relationship to terrorism.</p>
<p>Being a victim myself, as well as twenty persons of my immediate family, I am more eager than ever to know why this terror exists. Is it religious, political, hate, or all of the above?</p>
<p>Being raised in Lebanon, which is part of the Middle East, does not qualify me as an expert on Islam. I was born and raised as a Catholic; I was educated in a Catholic school and lived in a small town of about forty thousand people who were all Maronite Catholics. I only knew and heard of Muslim people in the southern and northern part of the country, contrary to those that lived in the capital, Beirut and its suburbs, people of all religions lived in the same building. I never had a Muslim friend, never ate in a Muslim house, so the idea of Islam was always foreign to me and my family. I was in my own little cocoon, and I had no reason to establish a relationship outside my community. So life went on, and I grew in a happy, peaceful town surrounded by my family, relatives, childhood friends and neighbors, until January 16, 1976. It was on this date that Islam crept into my life like an unwelcome guest and destroyed the life I had known and wiped my whole town off the map.</p>
ANDRÉ RAYMOND (1925–2011)