Ralph Peters’ droll deconstruction of The 0!’s Middle East Tour is a not-to-be-missed piece of worthwhile snark. A sample:
Churches and synagogues are about to open in Saudi Arabia. Since “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance” and there are “over 1,200 mosques within our borders,” I can’t wait for the first Baptist hymn-sing in Riyadh. Sign me up!
Behind closed doors with Saudi King Abdullah, our president must’ve mentioned the many hundreds of churches and synagogues that thrived on the Arabian Peninsula during the Prophet’s lifetime. Muslims zealots destroyed them. Time to get the bin Laden family’s construction firm on the job re-building!
And stoning converts who leave Islam to death is a no-no, right?
Yep. “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance” MHWA. When flying pigs poop on The Black Stone of the Kaaba…
And don’t miss this priceless dissing of the “Islamic contributions to civilization” myth:
Islam’s been the source of real progress. Like “calligraphy.” Medieval Islam’s ballyhooed contributions actually were due to Greek-speaking Christians (including slaves) employed as court officials, to Armenian architects and Jewish physicians. But, yeah, Arabs had really good penmanship.
But really, Peters give Islam too much credit and touched on just a tad of the “contributions” Islamic culture is falsely credited with. BTW, Medieval European illuminated manuscripts are far more beautiful than Arabian penmanship. Hands down. It’s not that Islamic culture hasn’t tried over the centuries. It really has. Ideas stolen from the best of conquered and enslaved people, debased and hoarded for silly uses or used to falsely demonstrate Muslim superiority abound. But hey! Don’t let me rain on the myths. After paging through the thousands of hits of propaganda you’d get on Google, it’d take someone of more than average intellectual stamina to look for the truth… (Not me. I was introduced thirty-eight years ago to a genuine scholar–a Lebanese gentleman who, though he had multiple doctorates recognized in his own country was starting over again in the US ed system *spit*–who gave me a few pointers on where to look–all before the web. Took months of library searches, in what free time a po’ student could wrangle, to verify his astounding revelations… So, don’t expect me to do your homework for you :-))