Silvio Berlusconi Quotes
The West will continue to conquer peoples, even if it means a confrontation with another civilization, Islam, firmly entrenched where it was 1,400 years ago.
"Berlusconi remarks on Islam draw fire." CNN.com, 27 Sep. 2001.
He was the scientist most responsible for the Pakistani nuclear bomb capability. However, he took his technological knowledge and without the knowledge of his government and contrary to their promises to the United States and other nations, accepted large secret payments to assist third world dictatorships to begin a nuclear weapons program. When he was caught, he was arrested but he is one of the very few world class scientists that Pakistan had ever had and was one of the most famous and popular Pakistani figures. The Pakistani Supreme court ruled that he was free to move about Pakistan but may not leave the country, and he is supposedly monitored to prevent his sharing nuclear secrets with terrorists and dictatorial states. In 2012 he formed his own political party.
This phrase and the theory behind it are often misattributed to Samuel P. Huntington who first used it as the title of a talk at the American Enterprise Institute in 1992 and the following year used if as the Title of a very important article in Foreign Affairs. Huntington was very familiar with Lewis’ works and doubtless used the Lewis phrase as it perfectly fit Huntington’s concept. See {604193}.
Damn this world, Damn this time. Damn this fate That uncivilized Arabs have come to make me a Moslem
This is a huge epic poem that he wrote over several years. At the time, the Persians considered themselves far more civilized and sophisticated than the Arabs who were but tribesmen. They really resented the fact that it was the Arabs that brought Islam. And before, most of the Persians worshipped Zoroaster. Although Islam spread faster and further than any religion in history, it was not always easily accepted as this stanza of the poem indicates. There is to this day a superiority that the Iranians perceive over the Arabs. And to this day, many Arabs resent the Iranians for this attitude.
Al-Omar is one of Saudi’s leading clerics and the Saudi Arabian government—supposedly is a major ally of the United States—not only tolerates this type of inflammatory rhetoric but it makes no effort to repudiate this and other radical Islamic statements. There is no freedom of Speech in Saudi Arabia, and people are arrested all the time for saying things that are displeasing to the Royal Family. But no attempt to suppress this kind of virulent anti-American attack.
This quotation is an excellent example of the early, militant Gandhi. It is typical of militant theocracies of the Islamic world today.
One remarkable aspect of this quote is that most Western nations have the exact same perception he claims the Islamic word does of what the West is doing. While the Western nations think the defense is necessary and desirable, the Muslim nations fundamentally believe that Christianity and Judaism should and will be supplanted by Islam. To the Islamic fundamentalist religion is a zero sum game. Every person in the world who is not a Muslim is an attack on Islam in that God wants all to follow Islam and wants the faithful to make it so.
Most Muslims in the world prefer a Western modern lifestyle to their traditional culture. The Islamic fundamentalist leaders however see evil and the dissolution of their traditions in this process of modernization and try and polarize their communities to intimidate the modernists. The same thing happened in Christianity over the last centuries and the modernists prevailed, but even in America there are still religious fundamentalists (Christians and Jews) who reject and oppose modernism. The difference is that in America, the anti-modernists are relatively few and not nationally influential on public officials while in many Islamic nations, they are numerous and very influential on public officials. The American religious fundamentalists have already lost in trying to stave off modernity; in many Islamic nations the contest is still in doubt.
Unlike other conquerors who wanted their wealth, property, animals or women, this was an offer that was almost too good to refuse even if the community were well fortified and had organized soldiers. It is important to note that these options were not available to all people. The Prophet had decided to allow Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians to practice their religion and pay the fizya tax which was not very high. The Persians were Zoroastrians and hence the did not have to convert which most other people did. The Muslim conquest of Persia, therefore, was much easier than most other places.
Silvio Berlusconi is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1994 to 2013 and has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019, and previously from 1999 to 2001.
