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Gaza Crisis [1/29]

This will most likely be my last major link round-up on the topic. There are individual threads of the cost of the crisis that I may develop, but with the current incursion over, the need for relatively quick, major round-ups has dissipated. One of the things I tried to communicate through my sourcing was that the conflict is not a religious issue. I consciously choose to limit the number of Muslim sources to indicate that there was opposition to Israel’s actions that was not based in a conception of a Cosmic War. I also wanted to highlight the number of…

A Story

During one of the conflicts of the early period of Islam, Hazrat Ali (PBUH) was on the battlefield engaged with his opponent. He had disarmed his opponent, the champion of the opposition, and was getting ready to slay him. His enemy spat upon him and Hazrat Ali sheathed his sword. His opponent asked why he did so. Hazrat Ali’s response was that “In battle, when two enemies are fighting for a cause,” in Imam Ali’s case Islam, “then the ideals of the of cause are worth dying for and have to be respected. When you spat on me, I became…

Bernard Lewis answers 7 Questions

I have to say, it has been quite some time since I agreed with Bernard Lewis. However, I find myself nodding along with 6 of his 7 answers. Answer to Question 6 is a standard neocon answer and really ignores the broad scope of history that he seems to arguing from everywhere else. For Ottomanist – he’s not an Arabist nor an Islamicist – I’m surprised he doesn’t mention modern Turkey as a democratic state. Bernard Lewis