Islam: Another Wave Length

It was, oddly enough, in the United States that 1 became aware of how acute the differences were between the Islamic world and the West. The occasion was a lecture I gave on the question of whether a genuine dialogue could take place between theists and atheists. Immediately after my lecture, the audience, composed of Christians, Jews, and one Moslem, continued to discuss the subject. At the end of the session, I expressed my gratitude to the Moslem, a leading Islamic scholar, and referred to the Jewish and Christian roots of his religion. He was outraged and asked how I would react to a claim that Christianity had Jewish roots. Every Jew and Christian in the room freely admitted that this was indeed the case, much to the poor man’s surprise and dismay. Of course, very few of us in the room would have been able to talk knowledgeably about Islam.

It would be a serious mistake to assume that Islam and its culture and civilization can be explained “racially” as a purely Semitic phenomenon. There are Aryan Moslems like the Iranians, Afghans, and Pakistanis; Ural-Altaic Moslems like the Tartars; Hamitic Moslems like the Berbers; and Slavic Moslems like the Bosnians. Religion—not chromosomes—answers the questions as to the wherefrom, the why, and the whereto.

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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Religious Persecution

It was, oddly enough, in the United States that 1 became aware of how acute the differences were between the Islamic world and the West. The occasion was a lecture I gave on the question of whether a genuine dialogue could take place between theists and atheists. Immediately after my lecture, the audience, composed of Christians, Jews, and one Moslem, continued to discuss the subject. At the end of the session, I expressed my gratitude to the Moslem, a leading Islamic scholar, and referred to the Jewish and Christian roots of his religion. He was outraged and asked how I would react to a claim that Christianity had Jewish roots. Every Jew and Christian in the room freely admitted that this was indeed the case, much to the poor man’s surprise and dismay. Of course, very few of us in the room would have been able to talk knowledgeably about Islam.

It would be a serious mistake to assume that Islam and its culture and civilization can be explained “racially” as a purely Semitic phenomenon. There are Aryan Moslems like the Iranians, Afghans, and Pakistanis; Ural-Altaic Moslems like the Tartars; Hamitic Moslems like the Berbers; and Slavic Moslems like the Bosnians. Religion—not chromosomes—answers the questions as to the wherefrom, the why, and the whereto.