Eric Such an innovation might enable these states to combine greater freedoms with higher purpose, to free up the energies, imaginations, and productive capacities of their peoples, while also keeping them focused on working toward achieving a morally and spiritually centered society. In the end, such a regime might enable them to more fully realize the kind of just community which their faith demands of them, one which creates material wealth more efficiently than does their current system, but which retains its unique Islamic character. If they could accomplish this bold vision, Islam, which seven hundred years ago led the West toward the Enlightenment, might again blaze a trail toward a brighter future for all mankind. In this book, Bernard Lewis has ably described what has gone wrong in the Islamic world; it is long past time for them, and us, to start addressing these problems.
A clear succinct summation which I totally agree with. A better summation than I had. One thing that puzzles me though, is; Bernard Lewis embraces a lot of leftist orthodoxies, but the left has rejected his conclusions. |
