Arnold J. Toynbee Quotes
The struggle for religion will be a struggle beside which the struggle for freedom will seem a little thing
English history has been replete with Catholic-Protestant conflict and because of the British Empire, the British historians were very familiar with the Islamic conflict with Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and other religions. Toynbee was very worried about the future religious struggles and he turned out to be right. Freedom isi amenable to different interpretations and compromise. Religion also has different interpretations, but many of the religious fundamentalists see compromise as an offence to God and his word. So religion is less amenable to political, civil or social structuring and compromise.
Arnold J. Toynbee, 1852–1883, English Economic Historian, Uncle of Arnold J. Toynbee, the English Historian, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century in England
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This Sura of the Koran warns the faithful that the non-Muslims of the world have as a major objective the Conversion of Muslims. While this was and has been the case in times past starting even before the Crusades, many Christians felt it as an obligation to either convert the Muslims or to kill them. In modern times there have been Christian missionaries who have had an objective of converting Muslims, but no Christian government has had that as a policy for a long time now. But most Muslims are told this is so today and the Koran warned of this. The result is that many Muslims—particularly those who have not had much contact with other religions—believe that because of this, they will be forever fighting heretics like Christians. For this reason, Islam’s future is under attack.
There are no issues, moral, military, political, economic, or social that have vexed British society for as long as the issues raised by Ireland and its complex relationship with Great Britain.
He is a Greek Orthodox Christian, and he correctly observes that the Islamic world was considerably more tolerant than the Christian until the 18th century when Islam had become less tolerant in the Middle East while the Christians were modernizing and going through a cultural and intellectual enlightenment and societal modernization while the Muslims, became less tolerant than they were in earlier years leading to the modern situation.
It is this verse that for some Muslims justifies terrorism against non-Muslims. See {584354} for a specific example. There are similar provisions in the Old Testament which a few extremely conservative Jews and Christians have used to advocate for blasphemy being a capital crime. Note that if an unbeliever repents and becomes a Muslim, he should be spared.
Despite his recognition of this point, he too became an advocate of murdering religious opponents.
Most fundamentalist Muslims view advocacy of any religion other than Islam as an “aggression” against Islam. While Americans are used to evangelizing and very aggressive attempts to convert others to and from various religion, the lack of freedom in most Islamic societies makes this a foreign notion. Also, Muslims read the works of some Christian missionaries and generalize this view to the West in its entirety. For example, See {607979}
Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH FBA was a British historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's College London. From 1918 to 1950, Toynbee was considered a leading specialist on international affairs.
