The Crisis of Islam by Bernard Lewis
February 1st 2007 07:40
Bernard Lewis is one of the most respected scholars on Islam and The Crisis in Islam began as a long essay on Islam in 2001, that critical year which changed all our lives, and ended up being a short book in 2003. I have read Lewis' other histories which are written in somewhat cagey style. This books by contrast is an exercise in simplicty. Lewis writes simply but by the end is able to pack up so much punch, he is able to render the tragedy of modern Islam without apologising for it nor showing any virulence. It is thoughtful and shattering at the same time.
Lewis spends only little time with the early history of Islam and the Crusades and such like but picks up on the moribund state of Islam during the start of last century, a state which still plagues it. He shows how Islamic world was fundamentally oblivious to America till a few decades ago and then suddenly discovered it and quickly made it into the Islamic version of Babylon, an immoral place which has to be destroyed.
According to Lewis, " the most powerful accusation of all is the degeneracy and debauchery of the American way of life, and the threat that it offers to Islam.........That is what is meant by the term the Great satan, applied to the united States by the late Ayotollah Khomeeini. Satan as depicted in the Quran is neither an imperialist nor an exploiter. He is a seducer, ' an insidious tempter who whispers in the hearts of men.' "
The focus of the book is squarely on the the threat posed by Islam to the west and does not go beyond. It does not probably occur to Lewis that Islam might provide a threat to wider world than simply the West and his summation is generosity itself.
He clings to all the sunny possibilities that will prevent Islam from becoming a world wide threat but ends on this sombre note: " If the fundamentalists are corect in their calculations and succeed in their war, then a dark future awaits the world, especially the part of it that embraces Islam."
One can only wish desperately that the fundamentalists are wrong in their calculations.
Lewis spends only little time with the early history of Islam and the Crusades and such like but picks up on the moribund state of Islam during the start of last century, a state which still plagues it. He shows how Islamic world was fundamentally oblivious to America till a few decades ago and then suddenly discovered it and quickly made it into the Islamic version of Babylon, an immoral place which has to be destroyed.
According to Lewis, " the most powerful accusation of all is the degeneracy and debauchery of the American way of life, and the threat that it offers to Islam.........That is what is meant by the term the Great satan, applied to the united States by the late Ayotollah Khomeeini. Satan as depicted in the Quran is neither an imperialist nor an exploiter. He is a seducer, ' an insidious tempter who whispers in the hearts of men.' "
The focus of the book is squarely on the the threat posed by Islam to the west and does not go beyond. It does not probably occur to Lewis that Islam might provide a threat to wider world than simply the West and his summation is generosity itself.
He clings to all the sunny possibilities that will prevent Islam from becoming a world wide threat but ends on this sombre note: " If the fundamentalists are corect in their calculations and succeed in their war, then a dark future awaits the world, especially the part of it that embraces Islam."
One can only wish desperately that the fundamentalists are wrong in their calculations.
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Comment by Howard
Real Crash