the missing ingredient

Submitted by rw (Australia), Feb 16, 2010 at 04:42

Sounds like a good book; I have read the Pryce-Jones book two or three times and obviously found it very insightful. Not withstanding, there is an element of middle-eastern affairs which seems to me to be regularly overlooked by commentators who don't have a committedly or vitally religious/spiritual outlook - and that is the great importance of the Islamic foundations of arab society. Islam, in my view, is an unalloyed evil, infecting every area of life - the commentators are reflecting in part on the results of a spiritual mindset.

Another of my favourite books in the poltical arena is that of Dr Pipes' father - Dr Pipes senior's book on Property is marvellous and at least begins to look at the influence of religious thought on the development of property rights particularly in england and russia; I think the truth however is that religious thought/mindset is much more deeply implicated in the development of society than even the best scholars seem to allow.

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