Openness to other cultures and the way we perceive others can be ruined by fears and wrong ideas. However, once we open up and accept others all over the world, our fears will vanish and we will see others as they truly are. Our views will not be distorted or influenced by our own cultural values. Today, many members of the public call for correcting the distorted image of Muslims in the West. They demand that countries and organizations should dispel stereotypical images of Islam, but at the same time they seem to forget that they, themselves, need to correct their image of "others" in Muslim culture. They criticize the West for distorting the image of Muslims, but do not criticize themselves for distorting the image of the West in Muslim culture. They know their own rights and demand them but do not recognize the rights of the West, which is demonized in local culture. Worse than this, they never miss a chance to wish evil on the West when they supplicate to God. They picture the West as something scary. At one point in our country's history, we needed to implement various important government projects and had to use the help of foreign companies from different parts of the world. We benefited from their expertise. We also sent our sons and daughters to Western countries for better education. How could we have had so much trust in Westerners then and wish them evil and humiliation now? Have we forgotten that any evil that befalls them will ultimately also fall on us because we all live in the same world? Wishing evil on them is the same as wishing it on oneself. If we truly wish evil on polytheists, we should not do any business with them or ask them to help us or even consult them on matters of politics, science, business, etc. because doing so gives them more strength and pride and does not humiliate them. If we want to improve our image in the culture of other people and if we want them to stop distorting our image, then we should reconsider some of the supplications we use against them. It is wrong to wish evil on others. Our religion urges us to treat others well and to talk to them kindly and be polite with them. Imitation and following in the footsteps of forefathers can sometimes distort the truth. If we look at all religions, including Islam, we will find that imitation is the reason why some values of these religions were distorted. Plato talked about the danger of imitation in his book "The Republic": "We are pretty well agreed that the imitator has no knowledge worth mentioning of what he imitates. Imitation is only a kind of play or sport." Plato also wrote: "A man is not to be reverenced more than the truth." Islam combated imitation and called for not following in the footsteps of forefathers. In Islam, everyone is responsible for his own sins. We are not supposed to wish evil on others because those people live thousands of miles away from us and have not done us any wrong. On the contrary, many of them are helping us keep up with advanced countries.
