From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Tue Aug 13 2002 - 10:52:56 MDT
Michael Wiik:
>Perhaps, but I am encouraged by readings in the Washington Post about
>how debate is increasing in the Muslim world about what kind of society
>they really want. It seems radical Islam may be on the decline.
Yes, there _is_ discussion, and there was before and immediately after
September 11 too. I hope that it is encouraged and supported.
Wouldn't it be interesting if self-analysis and criticism of one's
own society in the Muslim cultures result in teaching Western cultures
that such an activity is valuable and worthwhile? What a sweet
closing of circles, since it was the Arabs in the Middle Ages
that preserved the Greek ideas that have been implicitly adopted
by many societies in the West.
More discussions:
- The Economist this week discusses Moslems living integrated in
nonMoslem cultures. I was gratified to see it as a topic opened
for discussion.
- In the National Geographic, June issue, was a piece about a
woman journalist traveling in Afghanistan with an Afghan as
her interpreter, and her experiences looking at the world
through his eyes.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0206/feature4/index.html
--------------------------
When I was looking into the past alternatively cooperative and
antagonistic relations between the Moslems and Christians in the
Middle Ages (easy to see in the mixing of the cultures in Portugal
and Spain and France today), I dug up the following URLs :
http://www.roadtopeace.org/history/human_history/history_capsule.html
A Short History Lesson
Islam in the Middle East and Europe
Some Ramifications of Cultures in Conflict
------
http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/naples/earlyislam.html
Early Islam in Italy
------
http://aok.heavengames.com/thegame/civs/saracens_history.shtml
Saracens History
--------------------------
The optimist and lover-of-humanity in me believes that
a happy and productive relationship is possible with an
open mind, respect, and a lot of hard work!
Amara
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "One world at a time." --Thoreau
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