Misoxeny

A word I thought I had coined, modelled after the word misogyny (from the Greek misos—hatred—and gune—woman: a hatred and suspicion of women in general). In my coinage, the ‘-xeny’ comes from the later Greek xenos—stranger, foreigner.

Actually, just today (28 November 2009), I found the word misoxeny in my hard copy of the Webster's 1913 edition.

Misoxeny means: a hatred and suspicion of strangers, foreigners, or any person or class of persons deemed to be ‘other’ or outsiders to one’s own group or culture.

While all cultures throughout history have traces of this pathology in greater or lesser degrees, along with its closely related pathology of tribalism, Islamic culture has cultivated misoxeny (and tribalism) to a degree and intensity and sophistication unparalleled among all other cultures all of history. More importantly, Islam is wired by its founding blueprint (the Koran and the Sunnah as well as the latter's equivalent in Shia Islam) to maintain misoxeny (and tribalism) throughout history and for eternity; whereas the four pillars of Western civilization—Graeco-Roman / Judaeo-Christian—contained the seeds for its ongoing progressive evolution by which it continues to transcend misoxeny (and tribalism) in favor of universalism.