Claire Berlinski Quotes
Some people are afraid that there will be an European “us verses them” dichotomy with the Moslems. There already is an “us verses them” dichotomy. What else can you call it when “them” is killing “us.”
Claire Berlinski, Writer and Contemporary Historian, Jim Bohannon Radio Show, March 8, 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Nigeria was about equally divided into Muslims who dominated the North and Christians and Animists who dominated the South. The former were intent on making Sharia—Islamic Law—the law of the nation and the latter were equally passionate to avoid it. Muslim protests got very violent including murdering innocent civilians; the Christians threatened to retaliate.
The Prime Minister was stating a widely held, but erroneous view of the West, history and geopolitics. The Crusades were traumatic for Muslims as the Europeans were not only military threats to the Muslim holy places, but the Christians were particularly brutal even to Richard the Lionhearted butchering unarmed prisoners of war who had surrendered. This aggression by some countries in Europe under the Christian “banner” is associated, to this day with Christianity and any primarily Christian nation is therefore just poised to attack and expel Islam from the Middle East. Mahathir therefore saw the American attack on Afghanistan and later Iraq as just an extension of the Crusader zeal whose object is to destroy Islam. Malaysia has a large population of Muslims—much larger than any of the Middle Eastern Islamic states. Yet, religiously oriented Islamic political leaders make common cause with other Muslim nations which have almost no other interest in common other than their religion.
The images of the hostages in the Russian School:
In most religions, the clerics generally denounce violence especially where innocent people are involved as do many Islamic clerics throughout the world. However, a very large proportion of the Islamic Clergy not only condones violence but actually urges it and uses their interpretation of religious duty to motivate people in that direction. They tend to drown out the pacifistic Muslim clerics and in some cases they call for their death for heresy, thus intimidating many Islamic moderates.
Claire Berlinski (born 1968) is an American journalist and author. Born and raised in California and other parts of the United States, including New York City and Seattle, she read Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford where she earned a doctorate in International Relations. She has lived in Bangkok, where she worked for Asia Times; Laos, where she worked briefly for the United Nations Development Program; and Istanbul, where she worked as a freelance journalist. She now lives in Paris.
