<font color=brown>Eric, I don't know Lewis but I did a search and found this article that was done in 1990 apparently. I think its still very timely.
I might add some things about Islam that I noted while taking classes on the ME. First, Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was not a religous man when the Angel Gabriel allegedly spoke to him and gave him the Koran. He was a fairly simple man who was not very educated and could not read or write. In fact, the Koran had to be written by others.
Secondly, when push came to shove, he became a soldier....fighting his way to Medina to escape his detractors in Mecca. And then fighting his way back to Mecca. So, in a sense, Islam was founded on violence.
Islam now is going through a violent period much like Christianity has in the past. I think that's partly because Muslims are not as advanced economically and politically as Westerners........which sounds arrogant but is true. However, it was not always that way. At one time, the Islamic Empire was the center of the world from which all innovation emanated.
When Europe was in its Dark Ages, Islam was flourishing. In 700-1000 AD Islamic MDs were removing cataracts from their patients' eyes and establishing hospitals. It was the Muslims who developed the concept of books, importing paper from China. I could go on and on with their early accomplishments. The city of Cordoba, Spain, one of the most beautiful I have seen, is a testament to the culture and sophistication of the Islamic Empire of that time.
Having said that, Islam has clearly fallen on bad times. Its mostly the fault of its leaders and partly the fault of outside interference primarily but not exclusively European. Muslims see America as an extension of Europe and a very bad influence. Making matters worse, there is a growing fundamentalism developing within Islam that if allowed to take root and control gov'ts, could make the life of the rest of the world miserable. Muslims make up nearly 1/4 of the world's population and are the second fasting growing after the Sub Sahara. Their impact on our lives could be considerable.
Its for those reasons what we are doing in Iraq worries me immensely. There have a been a number of Muslims in my classes and we talk from time to time. They have a fairly positive view of the US but to a person, think what Bush is doing in Iraq is wrong. They feel that they should have the right to find their way in the world and not be told that way by Americans.
They have a point to which we need to pay attention.
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Why so many Muslims deeply resent the West, and why their bitterness will not easily be mollified
by Bernard Lewis
IN one of his letters Thomas Jefferson remarked that in matters of religion "the maxim of civil government" should be reversed and we should rather say, "Divided we stand, united, we fall." In this remark Jefferson was setting forth with classic terseness an idea that has come to be regarded as essentially American: the separation of Church and State. This idea was not entirely new; it had some precedents in the writings of Spinoza, Locke, and the philosophers of the European Enlightenment. It was in the United States, however, that the principle was first given the force of law and gradually, in the course of two centuries, became a reality.
theatlantic.com |
