News+and+politics religion philosophy the cynic librarian: Islam: A Culture Fighting Itself

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Islam: A Culture Fighting Itself

Echoing some remarks I have made on this blog, Olivier Roy points out that the recent furor over cartoons lampooning Islam and the prophet Muhammad say more about Islamic dilemmas than it does about whether the religion is a fanatical Medieval religion of war. ...

At Newsweek, Roy writes:

The worst lesson to draw from last week's brouhaha has already become the most common—that it represents a deep "clash of civilizations." Not true. Instead of demonstrating the unity of the Muslim world, the protests underscore its division: a recidivist old guard determined to protect its power and hidden interests versus the growing community of modernist Muslims. They consider themselves first and foremost to be Europeans—and they quite simply do not want to be treated as immigrants, or insulted.


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