This is an old Islamic literary topos

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jul 29, 2014 at 20:03

Dr. Pipes

This is just an addendum: I want to bring to your attention the old Islamic literary formula that has been attributed to el-Sheikh el-Tahtawi and also to Sheikh Mohamed Abdou, both Egyptians who lived in France for a period more than 100 years ago who were enchanted by France and the people of France. Here is the quote:

عندما ذهبت الى هناك يعني فرنسا وجدت الأسلام ولم أجد المسلمين وعندما اعدت إلى هنا يعني مصر وجدت ألمسلمين ولم وأجد الأسلام

Which I would translate as: "When I went there (that is, to France) I found Islam but I did not find any Muslims and when I came back here (that is, to Egypt) I found Muslims but not Islam."

Et voilà. All Rehman and Askari had to do is make up numbers to prove the point; then the France of Mohamed Abdou or Tahtawi becomes the New Zealand of these two ….

They should be ashamed of themselves.

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