the 'monstrous perversion of Islam' to the evils of Nazism and Bolshevism

[Risto 0]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...rticle/ShowFull

In an exclusive interview with the 'Post,' renowned Arabist Bernard Lewis likens what he calls the 'monstrous perversion of Islam' to the evils of Nazism and Bolshevism - and says that where it leads will depend on how the West responds to it

'One has to distinguish between nationalism and patriotism,' says the 92-year-old historian.

Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

Bernard Lewis is more than slightly amused when asked why many people are surprised to discover that he is a Jew.

"I didn't realize there was any secret about it," he chuckles - something he does often throughout our hour-long interview at his pied-a-terre in Tel Aviv, where he and significant other Buntzie Churchill spend three months of every year. During the other nine, he divides his time between Princeton, New Jersey (where the British-born professor taught from 1974 to 1986) and work-related jaunts to other parts of the globe, including places the 92-year-old historian of the Middle East and Islam would rather not name. Which is no wonder, really, considering the complexity of his relation to the subject on which he has written, lectured and advised on extensively throughout his career, first in his native London and subsequently in the US, where he settled. Indeed, Lewis's passion for medieval Arabic texts and respect for what he calls "one of the great religions" has not prevented him from being a caustic critic of radicalization among modern Muslims. On the contrary, if anything, his erudition has led him to assert unequivocally that the extremists have perverted their own traditions beyond recognition.

Still, says Lewis, "there are hopeful signs" indicating movement toward change. He cites, for example, his Jordanian friends' reaction to watching Israeli television and seeing Arab Knesset members openly attack the government with impunity. They are at once shocked and envious. Freedom tends to have that effect on those who do not enjoy it. Which is why, Lewis explains, "one of the things that even the most oppressive regimes cannot cope with today is modern communications - the Internet and so on. People know things now in a way and to an extent that were inconceivable in earlier times. They know, for example, how bad things are in their societies, because they see the contrast with the West. And there are more and more people interested in creating open societies."

As the prolific author of dozens of books - most recently What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East (2002), The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror (2003) and From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East (2004) - Lewis was widely acclaimed in academia. But following the 9/11 attacks, the focus - and prescience - of his life's work (it was actually his use of the phrase "clash of civilizations" in 1957 that was first recorded in print) catapulted him into the laymen's limelight, turning him into a household name. But Lewis doesn't consider himself clairvoyant.

"If you study the history and culture of a region," he says, shrugging. "You get an idea of what's going on."

Growing up in England and serving in the British military, was an issue made of your being Jewish? Was it ever an obstacle?

No. When I joined the British army in 1940, I was interviewed by a sergeant who, while taking down all the relevant particulars, asked, "What is your race?"

Well, nowadays, I would say "white" or "Caucasian," but at the time, that wouldn't have occurred to me. In England, we never spoke about race. I knew what the Germans meant by it, however. So I asked the sergeant whether I should put "Jewish" in that category.

"Nah," he dismissed. "That's your religion, and we've already got that on another line."

At that point, I was completely mystified. "What, then," I asked, "am I supposed to put?"

"As far as the British army is concerned," he replied, "there are four races: English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish. You are clearly English."

So, I went to war with documents that said that I was British by nationality, English by race and Jewish by religion.

Is it true that you coined the phrase - and title of Samuel Huntington's book - "clash of civilizations"?

I'm not sure. I did use it at a meeting in Washington in 1957, and it is on record, because the transcript of that meeting was published the following year. At the time, I was not aware of coining a phrase, and it's very likely that I had heard it used somewhere. But apparently, mine is the first usage that was recorded in print. And until it became an issue, I wasn't aware that there was anything extraordinary about it.

Were you being clairvoyant?

I don't think "clairvoyant" is the right word. If you study the history and culture of a region - in the languages of that region - you get an idea of what's going on.

You became a feminist before it was fashionable, certainly for men. How did you come to "get an idea of what's going on" in the realm of women's issues?

That arose from a specific incident that occurred when I was teaching at the University of London, soon after World War II. One of my honors students, a young woman who must have been around 19 or 20, asked for an appointment to talk to me. Prior to our meeting, I looked up her record and saw she was one of our best students. When she arrived at the meeting, she said she had come to inform me that she would be leaving the university, and didn't think it appropriate to disappear without letting me know. Thinking that perhaps this was due to financial concerns, I delicately indicated that if this were the case, there were ways in which we could help her.

"No, no, it's nothing like that," she said, explaining that she was engaged to be married. The man whom she was going to marry had a very poor high-school record, and therefore wasn't able to get a place in any university. So, at 18 or so, he went straight out to get a job. And this young lady said very primly - I remember it vividly, as though it were yesterday - "I don't think it would make for a happy marriage if the wife is educated to a higher degree than the husband."

[Ban Hammer 13,113]

Bernard Lewis is more than slightly amused when asked why many people are surprised to discover that he is a Jew.

he has an agenda then and we can discount anything he has to say then.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Bernard Lewis. Teehee

http://www.counterpunch.org/alam06282003.html

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I think this is the guy who denied the Armenian genocide.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I think this is the guy who denied the Armenian genocide.

Apparently the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians was not a "genocide" but merely a "byproduct of war."

His further remarks on the subject are even more fascinating.

Edited March 8, 2008 by wife_of_mahmoud