I hope you keep writing your insightful comments. You have more education than myself in history. Just to play devil's advocate would the old Europe and it's people have been wiped out or would they have been assimilated. They perhaps would have redefined the direction of Islam if they had converted. We're dicussing the influence of culture vs. religion and I think these must also be seen in the whole scheme of things.
Assimilated, of course. That's the way it always happened. Syria, Egypt, North Africa -- all were once Christian lands. A few devotees fight to the death. But most people's faith is about the society, not the soul. Would they have changed the direction of Islam? If we look at "Western" countries that *are* Moslem -- say, Albania, or Bosnia, these lands are not noted for their dynamism. Islam has had its "liberals", but it is such a clear and easy faith to be fundamentalist in. So I don't think there would have been a moslem Martin Luther, to bring Reformation to Dar al-Islam. Could be, though. Who knows.
2 comments:
I hope you keep writing your insightful comments. You have more education than myself in history. Just to play devil's advocate would the old Europe and it's people have been wiped out or would they have been assimilated. They perhaps would have redefined the direction of Islam if they had converted. We're dicussing the influence of culture vs. religion and I think these must also be seen in the whole scheme of things.
Thanks Rick Maltese
okfrank.blogspot.com
Assimilated, of course. That's the way it always happened. Syria, Egypt, North Africa -- all were once Christian lands. A few devotees fight to the death. But most people's faith is about the society, not the soul. Would they have changed the direction of Islam? If we look at "Western" countries that *are* Moslem -- say, Albania, or Bosnia, these lands are not noted for their dynamism. Islam has had its "liberals", but it is such a clear and easy faith to be fundamentalist in. So I don't think there would have been a moslem Martin Luther, to bring Reformation to Dar al-Islam. Could be, though. Who knows.
J
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