Arabic Language, Arabic Culture Quotes
At the time, the Muslim culture was far more advanced than the Christian. Also, the Roman Catholic Church was very sexually prudish compared with the more modern Arabs, To the distress of the Christian leaders, the Christians of Spain were attracted to the more modern Islamic society. This was just the opposite of today. Since the 9th century, the Muslims have become much more restrictive and prudish in their religion while the Christians and the West have eclipsed them and greatly modernized. So today, it is the Islamic leaders who worry that the Muslims are attracted to Western culture.
Islam is a proselytizing religion, and the Wahabi sect that dominates the religion and even the Royal Family in Saudi Arabia, is a particularly fundamentalist exponent. Hence the translation of Islamic books into Arabic. The few books translated into Arabic reflects not only the fear of heresy and cultural imperialism, but there is a conservative Islamic view that everything that is valid and important to know is in the Koran and the Hadith. Therefore, no other books are necessary.
This quotation gives a very good example of “street wisdom” which is believed by large proportions of the Arab societies but which has no iota of truth. In America we have Urban legends—just as absurd—but believed by many street people anyway.
Husayn Ali Nuri. There is a fascinating parallel between the reform of Catholicism to Protestantism and that of Islam to Bahai. In both cases the reformers wanted to communicate in the language of the people rather than the formal Latin for the Christian world and Arabic for the Muslim.
