“I think confronted with the modern world or with the rest of the world, I think people are becoming aware that the Western and Islamic civilizations have more in common than apart. It was a German scholar, C. H. Becker, who said a long time ago that the real dividing line is not between Islam and Christendom; it's the dividing line East of Islam, between the Islamic and Christian worlds together on the one hand and the rest of the world on the other. I think there is a lot of truth in that.” PeopleThinkingWorldLongRealChristianTogetherCommonModernIslamWesternIslamicScholar Author:Bernard Lewis
“If you look at the movement of refugees, in Vladimir Lenin's phrase, "the people who voted with their feet," the movement of refugees until comparatively modern times was overwhelmingly from West to East, not from East to West. Refugees of all kinds were constantly fleeing from Christendom to the Islamic lands. Jews of course and Muslims of course, but even some Christians and the movement of refugees went overwhelmingly that way.” PeopleKindChristianModernJewAll KindsIslamicRefugee Author:Bernard Lewis
“Moses led his people through the wilderness and he wasn't permitted to enter the Promised Land. Jesus was crucified. Mohammad founded a state which soon became an empire, so that Islam from the very beginning is involved with government, with politics. And therefore there is a very clear strong political tradition in Islam.” PeoplePoliticalJesusStrongTraditionIslamWildernessMoses Author:Bernard Lewis
“Muslims are very keenly aware of the history of their community, of the history of that relationship between their community and the rest of the world. And they have had this all through the centuries and are very much heightened by modern communications. I mean now you have Muslims in the Muslim world who can compare their situations with people elsewhere and they find that very humiliating.” PeopleWorldMeanCommunitySituationModernCommunicationCompareElsewhereHumiliating Author:Bernard Lewis
“In most of the countries in the Muslim world today, most of them are autocratic regimes that are unpopular if not detested by their people. They need a scapegoat and for a long time the imperialist served that purpose.” PeopleWorldLongCountryTodayPurposeScapegoat Author:Bernard Lewis
“In the past, foreign intervention was obviously a major problem. Foreign domination, or if not domination, interference. But that has ended. There is no foreign domination; there is minimal foreign interference. The Cold War has ended. The Soviet Union no longer exists. The United States is showing minimal and diminishing interest in the Muslim world. They now have to confront their own problems. The old excuses are gone. The old justifications are gone and therefore the anger of people is turning increasingly against their own rulers.” PeopleWorldWarProblemPastInterestColdExcuseSovietRulersJustificationCold WarSoviet UnionDominationInterference Author:Bernard Lewis
“It is difficult to generalize about Islam. To begin with, the word itself is commonly used with two related but distinct meanings, as the equivalents both of Christianity, and Christendom. In the one sense, it denotes a religion, as system of beliefs and worship; in the other, the civilization that grew up and flourished under the aegis of that religion. The word Islam thus denotes more than fourteen centuries of history, a billion and a third people, and a religious and cultural tradition of enormous diversity.” PeopleTwoUsedBeliefDifficultReligiousChristianityCenturyGrewCivilizationDiversityWorshipGrew UpTraditionThirdsIslamBillionsEnormousRelatedFourteenChristendom Book:The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror Source: The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror
