Richard W. Bulliet Quotes

I have always wondered why the Muslim world is in the eye of virtually every storm, in my lifetime at least?

There can be no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic societies and political institutions. The failure of these institutions to function and the instability of these regimes in Muslim countries, manifest in frequent changes and coups d'état, is most often the consequence of their a priori opposition to Islam, as the fundamental and foremost feeling of the people in those countries.

I don't think people by nature are extremists. You will never find a population of extremists. Extremists have existed throughout the centuries on all religions. And what happens is, extremists start to have more leverage when the situation is bad.

It is development, not poverty, that causes upheaval and terrorism.

Violence would be a huge gift to those who want a divided Lebanon.

Violence is not a function of the Islamic faith.

We have had suicide bombers in London and we are seeing riots across the Channel. However the media and our Government try to cloud the issue by blaming British and French society and not the terrorists and rioters. They deliberately avoid pinpointing the driving force behind these attacks, which is a religion that is alien to these shores and in its latest fundamental form threatens our very way of life

People call us [Moslems] terrorists while ours is a religion of peace.

The idea that we could live with another 20 years of stagnation in the Middle East that breeds this radicalism and breeds terrorism is, I think, just unacceptable- especially after September 11th.

The Middle East is a region where extremists go all the way and moderates just go away.

The so called “Arab Spring” … is really a situation which is creating more threats so far than positive incentives.

The disorder, uncertainty, and strife of a revolution make citizens yearn for stable authority, or they turn to radicalism.

Investors avoid investing in a region where some elements cause political instability by their so-called movements.

I think Christine and Chad are on the opposite extremes of the spectrum. Christine is a model victim, and Chad is a model perpetrator, and Howard is closer to the middle.

When Religion and Royalty are swept away, the people will attack the great, and after the great, they will fall upon the rich.

The world today is anything but trouble-free.

First of all, my persuasion is what really breeds violence is political differences. But because religion serves as the soul of community, it gets drawn into the fracas and turns up the heat.

Men like me, who merely wish to establish political freedom, will in such circumstances lose all their influence, and others will get influence who may become dangerous to all established interests whatsoever.

I've always had trouble with authority.

Egypt is going through difficult times and we cannot allow it to carry on.

So, these political activities will create friction in and of themselves, and in this environment of friction there'll be additional violence.

Sometimes I think the world is divided into those who have a comfortable relationship with power and those who have a naturally adversarial relationship with power.

Yet did that Antiochus, who was also called Dionysius, become an origin of troubles again.

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

Something is wanting, and something must be done, or we shall be involved in all the horror of failure, and civil war without a prospect of its termination.