[(Continued from p.8)]
utopian view of the egalitarian nature of Islamic rule, particularly in Muslim Spain. Not surprisingly, Muslims eventually also picked up on this romantic Jewish myth about Islam, which became a standard part of their own self-image. However, Lewis concludes, "The Golden Age of equal rights was a myth, and belief in it was a result, more than a cause, of Jewish sympathy for Islam."An accurate assessment of interfaith relationships in Muslim Spain, and the contemporary currents responsible for obfuscating that history, can be found in Richard Fletcher's engaging book Moorish Spain (University of California Press, 1992). Mr. Fletcher offers these sobering observations:
"The witness of those who lived through the horrors of the Berber conquest, of the Andalusian fitnah in the early eleventh century, of the Almoravid invasion -- to mention only a few disruptive episodes -- must give it [i.e., the roseate view of Muslim Spain] the lie. The simple and verifiable historical truth is that Moorish Spain was more often a land of turmoil than it was of tranquility...Tolerance? Ask the Jews of Granada who were massacred in 1066, or the Christians who were deported by the Almoravids to Morocco in 1126 (like the Moriscos five centuries later).In the second half of the twentieth century a new agent of obfuscation makes its appearance: the guilt of the liberal conscience, which sees the evils of colonialism -- assumed rather than demonstrated -- foreshadowed in the Christian conquest of al-Andalus and the persecution of the Moriscos (but not, oddly, in the Moorish conquest and colonization). Stir the mix well together and issue it free to credulous academics and media persons throughout the Western world. Then pour it generously over the truth. In the cultural conditions that prevail in the West today, the past has to be marketed, and to be successfully marketed it has to be attractively packaged. Medieval Spain in a state of nature lacks wide appeal. Self-indulgent fantasies of glamour...do wonders for sharpening up its image. But Moorish Spain was not a tolerant and enlightened society even in its most cultivated epoch."
Finally, even if deemed "tolerant" for medieval civilization, dhimmitude is completely incompatible with modern notions of equality between individuals, regardless of religious faith. At the dawn of the 21st century, we must insist that Muslims in the West adopt post-Enlightenment societal standards of equality, not "tolerance," abandoning forever their hagiography of the repressive, discriminatory standards practiced by the classical Maliki jurists of "enlightened" Muslim Spain.
Andrew G. Bostom, MD, MS, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University Medical School, and a freelance writer on jihad and dhimmitude.
How do you confine a billion people who have one thing in mind -- murder! Is there a jail big enough? Is there a fence long enough?
Or should the rest of us bolt our doors and hide under the covers?
As President Bush protests too much about their "peaceful religion," the New York Post, in its editorial upon the second anniversary of 9/11, tells it straight: "Much of Islam, with its billion plus adherents, and even many in the West -- in countries like France and Germany -- despise America, its freedoms, and particularly its success."
Ditto Israel, except that Israel comes first. As they say in their sermons -- "First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people."
Bush believes he has the answer. He is sending in 87 billion dollars to find Thomas Jefferson in that seventh century feud-crazed swamp that is Iraq. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack.
So now we sit back and wait for Iraq to become a light unto the nations, along with the 21 other backwater regimes that make up part of the Arab world.
How can I disagree with two men who are counted among our leading intellectuals? But I do. Both Daniel Pipes and Bernard-Henri Levy say that Fanatical Islam is the problem. Moderate Islam is the answer. I hope they're right. But I am not so sure. For all I know, it was "moderate" Islam that gave us 9/11, and it is moderate Islam that continues to give Israel 9/11 every single day.
Fanatical Islam hasn't yet been heard from.
Those who think it's all about Israel are indeed hiding under the covers. As they slumber, another mosque grows in Brooklyn. (Certainly in Toronto and Paris.)
How can I dispute Rush Limbaugh and his millions of radio listeners? I am in his corner when he is strong on America and Israel. But this time he's wrong. Dead wrong when he defends Bush's 87 billion for Iraq. He says it's for democracy. You cannot buy democracy, Rush, and you cannot sell democracy. You can impose tyranny. You cannot impose liberty.
That is not the Bill of Rights they pray to five times a day in their mosques. Bush is pleased that the schools are running again over there, but does he have a clue as to what (besides hatred for the West) the imams are teaching those kids? By the way, that 87 billion dollar figure is nearly triple the amount the federal government spends on America's schools.
We're dreamers, those of us here in America, and no wonder; we live in a land flowing with milk and money.
Innocents abroad, we believe that the lands of the kaffiyeh are ready for Britney Spears and the Monroe Doctrine (take your pick between James and Marilyn).
[(Continued on p.10)]
October 2003 - 9 - Outpost