No abstract

The background of this paper relates to the insulting and mocking depictions of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that were published by a number of European print media, as well as to 'Charlie Hebdo' incident, the terrorist attack that took place in Tunis on Bardo Museum on March 18, 2015, and the practices of the so-called "Islamic State" in some Arab regions. On this basis, therefore, and relying on Qur'an 1 and Sunnah 2 , the two major sources of Shariah (Islamic law and jurisprudence), and equally on some Muslim scholars' thoughts, the paper aims to serve, on the one hand, as a conclusive evidence that the deeds of those who act in diverse ways against the principles and teachings of Qur'an and Sunnah believing mistakenly that they are in a right Islamic path have nothing to do with Islam, but might rather defame it and its followers. On the other hand, the paper intends to function as a reply to anti-Islamic practices and islamophobic ideologies on the part of certain non-Muslim communities and organizations demonstrating that Islam is a religion of mercy and peace. This distinguishing characteristic underlies a number of principles and moral values which constitute the essence of good human relationships which Islam has had every intention of maintaining between all the peoples the world over.

There are two major interrelated reasons behind examining the topic of this paper. In fact, even after many years of their learning English as a foreign language, a large number of secondary school students' level of proficiency in the language is so low that they cannot use it communicatively, and cannot major in it at university, either. Accounting for their underachievement, a large percentage of such students claim that many teachers still play traditional roles in the teaching-learning process, which has contributed to the problem. The main purpose of this paper, therefore, is to explore the extent to which such a claim is justifiable. In this frame of reference, a questionnaire was administered to a certain number of students on the extent to which the teacher is responsible for the issue, as well as what they personally think the key characteristics of a successful EFL teacher are. Along with this, the paper will equally look at other qualities that ought to be available in EFL teachers with the overall aim of helping them to do their job successfully, and hence attain the expected learning results.