Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWaters
Does Islam lend itself to multiculturalism?
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Yes. It can and has in the past. Here is a facinating artilce about how a long period of Islamic enlightenment helped to save Western Civilization.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17516
During this period Christians were burning heretics and books and Islam was tolerant to all creeds, and even begat real philosophers in addition to saving thousands of acres of books.
During much of this period in fact an Islamic Empire--the Umayyad Empire--replaced the majority of the Roman Empire geographically and absorbed many of its virtues, even closely resembling Byzantium for a period (it actually extended beyond the Empire's old boundaries, clear to China but failed in its effort to subjugate Europe).
Everything you say about Islam could have been said about Christianity for long periods of history. This is what drives me crazy about many Americans. No sense of the long winding path of history over 3,000 years. Listen to the secular humanist here, the relationship between civilization and ancient religions such as Islam and Christianity and Judaism and liberal society is not as simple or explicable as you and Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchins suppose. I'm aghast at how unable these atheists are to recognize their own dogmatic tendencies.
Western Civilization is not a respecter of geography. It started in Greece and the torch has been passed around all through the mediterranean and Asia as well as Europe and the U.S. Islam can be receptive to it as well. We will beat this menace the same way we beat the Communist menace.