[lit-ideas] The de-islamization of Europe
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:37:26 -0800
A couple of books I have been reading off and on struck me this morning as
having an application that, perhaps, their authors didn't intend. The first
application (or perhaps "question" is a better word) is that whenever I have
heard of Qutbist Islamists longing for the return of lands that once
belonged to them, they always mention Southern Spain. I never hear them
mention the Balkans and yet they were under the control of a Muslim empire
for 500 years. Don't the Islamists want them back?
The second has to do with the nature of these European nations that were
under the control of a Muslim empire for 500 years. We speak of the
backwardness of the Middle Eastern nations and blame Colonialism, but what
of the European nations that were under Muslim control? What are they like?
Does what they are like have any bearing on the chances present day Iraq has
of turning itself into a nation that will soon be able to claim it is on
equal footing with the nations of the "technologically advanced 'West"?
On page 50 of Europe's Last Summer, Who started the Great War in 1914?
David Fromkin writes of the area we know gave birth to World War One and
puts it in this context: "Over the course of the nineteenth century, one
Christian people after another in southeastern Europe threw off the shackles
of Ottoman rule without then being absorbed by a Great Power. By the first
decade of the twentieth century Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and
Greece had become at least de factor free countries."
Fromkin then goes on to discuss the various interests the various "Great
Powers" had in this region, but what was the condition of this region after
having been Islamicized for such a long period of time?
On page 8 of The Balkan Wars, Conquest, Revolution and Retribution from the
Ottoman era to the Twentieth Century and beyond, Andre Gerolymatos writes,
"The political, cultural, and economic development of the Balkan countries
was interrupted and diverted by the Ottoman conquest in the fifteenth
century. The five hundred years of Turkish occupation that followed
suppressed the evolution of Balkan societies, so they failed to keep pace
with the rest of Europe and North America. In effect, the march of European
history and civilization skipped past, and the Renaissance, the Age of
Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution made little impression on the
region. As a result, the Balkan states emerged very late as modern
societies and have lagged far behind the technologically advanced West.
"The modern Balkans have captured the imagination and indignation of North
Americans and Western Europeans because the atrocities there are making
place now and not half a century ago. . . The Balkan past is littered with
the tribalism, ethnic nationalism, warmongering, mythmaking, and
self-serving symbolism of oppression that scar most societies in transition,
in the past as well as the present." Gerolymatos wrote this in perhaps 2000
or 2001. His book was published in 2002. Since then the atrocities taking
place in the Middle East have become more interesting than the atrocities of
the Balkans. But if the European Balkans are having difficulty adjusting to
the Modern West, how much more difficulty will that culture have that kept
the Balkans backward?
Last night I was watching the first season of Bones on a Netflix DVD. Booth
was berating Bones for denigrating someone they had just met for not being
very smart. He told her that all people are created equal. Bones argued
that just wasn't true. Some people are just smarter than others and he
should just get used to that fact. Some nations are just more backward than
others also, but maybe we shouldn't just get used to that fact. Maybe we
should try and do something about it rather than accept it. Maybe Booth
will never be as smart as Bones, but will Serbia never be as advanced as
France or Germany? And what of Iraq? Is it destined to remain backward?
One has the distinct impression that if the Ottoman empire had not lost
Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece, that they would be even
more backward than they are now.
The Ottoman Empire: the remnants of which are seeking to join the EU. Is
that a good idea? Not everyone thinks so.
Lawrence
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