From: Amara Graps (Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de)
Date: Thu Oct 04 2001 - 06:46:30 MDT
From: Greg Burch (gregburch@gregburch.net),Wed Oct 03 2001
>Amara, with respect, I think you're falling prey to what I used to call "the
>fallacy of the best"
[...]
>Assuming that you don't speak Arabic or Pushtun or
>whatever language your friends absorbed their native culture in, consider
>that all of your exposure to their ideas came through the filter of THEIR
>language study
My friends spoke Persian (Pushtun?) with them- one of them was
traveling regularly to Afghanistan bringing the supplies. This
particular person was well integrated into the Afghanistan culture,
and revered in some sense because of his extreme humanitarian efforts.
(I don't know details about where he travelled or which group there he
interacted with.) This was some time ago (1990).
Let me think more about what you said. Most of my references
describing Sufism come from Idries Shah, who is not American, but
British (I believe). I'll see if I can find some non-Idries Shah
references to Sufism someplace (Well Doris Lessing.. but she is
British too).
It's worthwhile to look at all sides of the situation. These
are real people that we are trying to understand. Not monsters.
Amara
--
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Amara Graps, PhD | Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik Heidelberg
Cosmic Dust Group | Saupfercheckweg 1 +49-6221-516-543 | 69117
Heidelberg, GERMANY Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de *
http://galileo.mpi-hd.mpg.de/~graps
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"Never fight an inanimate object." - P. J. O'Rourke
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