[lit-ideas] The Great Satan
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 07:58:14 -0800
[Clare Berlinski's Menace in Europe, page 71]
"The eminent Middle East historian Bernard Lewis has remarked that when the
mullahs call America the Great Satan, the Satan in question is not our
incarnation of evil, but theirs-'the adversary, the deceiver, above all the
inciter and tempter who seeks to entice mankind away from the true faith.'
In the Orientalist mythology described by Edward Said, the East is a
seductive female and the West is a conquering male. But it can equally well
be viewed as precisely the inverse. The West tempts the faithful and the
west devours religion, not so much by subduing it militarily as by offering
something so much more immediately attractive: personal autonomy, sexual
freedom, nice things to buy. Europe has snuffed out Christianity, and
sooner or later it will probably do the same to Islam. With luck, it will
do so before Islam manages to wreak too much more damage. But given how
much easier it is to destroy than to build, there is no guarantee that it
will do so in time."
There you go, Andreas: a bit of hope for Europe after all.
Lawrence
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