the crisis of islam (more on iran...)
shar'ia law. i think thats how you spell it. shar'ria law? shari'a .
one of the most eye-opening things i ever learned about the islamic culture was this little tidbit that im going to quote from Bernard Lewis' "The Crisis of Islam." This book is relatively short, fast paced, broad scoped, and absolutely fascinating - written by one of the world's foremost scholars on Islam. Really, i dont plug books much but this book is highly pluggable, especially if you find this stuff interesting. its about the history, relationship, modernity, and worldview of Islam....... so good.
on the difference between middle eastern and western worldviews
"References to early, even to ancient history are commonplace in public discourse. In the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war, for instance, both sides waged massive propaganda campaigns that frequently evoked events and personalities dating back as far as the seventh century, to the battles of Qadisiyya and Karbala. The battle of Qadisiyya was won by the Arab Muslim invaders of Iran against the defending army of the Persian shah, not yet converted to Islam and therefore, in Muslim eyes, still pagans and infidels. Both sides could thus claim it as their victory- for Saddam Hussein, of Arabs over Persians, for the Ayatollah Khomeini, of Muslims over unbelievers. The references to these battles were not detailed descriptions or narratives but rapid, incomplete allusions, yet both sides employed them in the secure knowledge that they would be picked up and understood by their audiences on both sides, even by the large proportions of those audiences that were illiterate. It is hard to imagine purveryors of mass propaganda in the West making their points by allusions dating from the same period, to the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy in England or the Carolingian monarchs in France. In the same spirit , Osama bin Ladin insults President Bush by likening him to Pharoah and accuses Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell (named together) as having wrought greater devastation in Iraq through the Gulf war of 1991 and after than did the Mongol khans who in the mid-thirteenth century conquered Baghdad and destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate. Middle Easterners perception of history is nourished from the pulpit, in the schools, and by the media, and although it may be - indeed, often is - slated and iaccurate, it is nevertheless vivid and powerfully resonant."
interesting. there's a lot more but i'll lose the little patience people have for a ranting, quoting, book-plugging dork like me.
one of the most eye-opening things i ever learned about the islamic culture was this little tidbit that im going to quote from Bernard Lewis' "The Crisis of Islam." This book is relatively short, fast paced, broad scoped, and absolutely fascinating - written by one of the world's foremost scholars on Islam. Really, i dont plug books much but this book is highly pluggable, especially if you find this stuff interesting. its about the history, relationship, modernity, and worldview of Islam....... so good.
on the difference between middle eastern and western worldviews
"References to early, even to ancient history are commonplace in public discourse. In the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war, for instance, both sides waged massive propaganda campaigns that frequently evoked events and personalities dating back as far as the seventh century, to the battles of Qadisiyya and Karbala. The battle of Qadisiyya was won by the Arab Muslim invaders of Iran against the defending army of the Persian shah, not yet converted to Islam and therefore, in Muslim eyes, still pagans and infidels. Both sides could thus claim it as their victory- for Saddam Hussein, of Arabs over Persians, for the Ayatollah Khomeini, of Muslims over unbelievers. The references to these battles were not detailed descriptions or narratives but rapid, incomplete allusions, yet both sides employed them in the secure knowledge that they would be picked up and understood by their audiences on both sides, even by the large proportions of those audiences that were illiterate. It is hard to imagine purveryors of mass propaganda in the West making their points by allusions dating from the same period, to the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy in England or the Carolingian monarchs in France. In the same spirit , Osama bin Ladin insults President Bush by likening him to Pharoah and accuses Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell (named together) as having wrought greater devastation in Iraq through the Gulf war of 1991 and after than did the Mongol khans who in the mid-thirteenth century conquered Baghdad and destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate. Middle Easterners perception of history is nourished from the pulpit, in the schools, and by the media, and although it may be - indeed, often is - slated and iaccurate, it is nevertheless vivid and powerfully resonant."
interesting. there's a lot more but i'll lose the little patience people have for a ranting, quoting, book-plugging dork like me.
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