How similarities feed anxieties

Submitted by David W. Lincoln (Canada), Jun 20, 2007 at 10:48

Given there is a lot of information to go on to determine where Hatem Barzian and Ali Hindy are coming from, here are the conclusions I have drawn from all of that information.

The best of the fusion of the cultures of Jerusalem, Athens and Rome, a.k.a. the West, chiefly exhibits what C.S. Lewis touched on in "The Abolition of Man". Even though there are differences between the Tao, the Rta, the philosophy of the Logos, and the Ma'at - the similarities bring comfort to those who encounter these realities.

Alas, that is not the way the likes of Barzian and Hindy, et al., sees it. For they see the similarities as threats to their way of life. How? Because the differences are ready fodder to maintain the distinction between "them" and "us". Whereas the similarities breach the divide between "them" and "us".

So, what does this have to do with what might be, as sketched by Mr. Pipes: only this, it is important to see where the likes of Barzian, Hindy, et al., are coming from. Why? There is no need to repeat the mistakes they have made, and continue to make. Which is, not to give a rat's ass as to where those of us who do not follow in the hoofprints of the brigands which stormed out of the Arabian Peninsula 1400 years ago wielding scimitars. For, one of the realities that the world outside of Islam has access to is the fact that men and women are different, and people did not come up with this distinction.

This reality has been a fundamental foundation in the determining of what is in-bounds, and what is out-of-bounds, regarding how men get along with men, how women get along with women, and how men get along with women. In other words, what affirms this reality is in-bounds, and what poorly affirms this reality is out-of-bounds. The other is, the conviction that people go through various stages of life, and the initial stages take place before birth. People did not set this up. So, if not people, then whom? Ergo, an unsolvable dilemma for the Muslim who states that Allah is only transcendent, and does not get involved in the affairs of people.

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