Exploding underwear.......

My reference to Niall Ferguson, the decline of the Ottoman Empire and its lack of any real intellectual contribution to the world provoked an energetic debate.

One view was that the intellectual stimulus came from the Greeks and Jews who were forced to convert and integrate, the implication being that Arabs created nothing of value. The weakness of this, I feel, is, first that the Middle East was the cradle of civilisation – the great cities of Aleppo, Byblos, Damascus, and so on were centres of learning from time out of mind. Secondly, learning in the Arab world continued to influence Europe for 1000 years after the fall of Rome.

This led to another topic, the hatred between Jews and Muslims.

Some say this goes back to the Prophet Mohammed. I am not so sure. My feeling is that this is a modern manifestation arising from increasing Jewish emigration to Palestine from the late 19 Century until the present. If I have understood Paul Johnson correctly in his magisterial ‘History of the Jews’ both Jews and Christians were tolerated under the Caliphate as ‘people of the book’. Jews held high office in the Caliphate partly for their competence and partly because they were seen to be disinterested. In many instances Jews prospered mightily in the Ottoman Empire. Bankers such as the Rothschilds and Sassoons were Middle East businessmen who set up branches in London and Paris.

Are the current upheavals in Arab countries related to hostility towards Israel? Any connection seems tenuous to the point of invisibility. And another thing; since our gallant lads in Libya are enforcing a ‘no fly’ zone, why are they attacking ground targets? I only asked.

Another attitude is that Muslims are terrorists because they are Muslim. On this reasoning the Omagh bombers who blew to bits young mothers and children were terrorists because they were Catholic. I prefer to believe that they are terrorists because they are thoroughly evil.

My guess is that ‘alienated’ Muslim youth are candidates for exploding underwear because of frustration and envy. They see their kaffir counterparts having the life of Riley – binge-drinking, fornicating, producing illegitimate kids so they can live on ever-increasing state benefits that in turn finance the stock-in-trade of their drugs-dealing sidelines – and they want a slice of it but can never get it.