Saturday, March 05, 2011

Islam is just a religion

Not necessarily the solution.

Nicholas Kristof: 'Many Arabs blame outsiders for their backwardness, and cope by rejecting modernity and the outside world. It’s a disgrace that an area that once produced outstanding science and culture (giving us words like algebra) now is an educational underachiever, especially for girls.

The crisis in the Arab world provides a chance for a new start. I hope we’ll have some tough, honest conversations on all sides about what went wrong — as a starting point for a new and more hopeful trajectory.

The Muslim Brotherhood has often used the slogan, “Islam is the solution.” And to the West, the unstated feeling upon looking across the bleak Middle East landscape has often been: “Islam is the problem.” Professor Kuran’s research suggests that, at least looking forward, the more correct view is: Islam isn’t the problem and it isn’t the solution, it’s simply a religion — meaning that the break is over, there are no excuses, and it’s time to move forward again.'

1 comment :

Don Cox said...

Islam doesn't tell you how to design a sewage works or a smart electrical grid, or how to control inflation. It has no relevance at all to the work of a government.

Nor do any other religions.

(The contrary view is "It doesn't matter if the streets are running with sewage and your kids are dying of cholera in the dark. All that matters is the next world.")