tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030144.post7869986082154377611..comments2023-10-29T11:50:25.742+02:00Comments on My Obiter Dicta: Islam and the West: A Medievalist's RuminationsJeffrey R. Woolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11315625918870195028noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030144.post-70492555558683668232016-09-22T22:38:37.111+03:002016-09-22T22:38:37.111+03:00Western Civilization has lost it's grip on the...Western Civilization has lost it's grip on the primacy of the needs of the community over the individual. Perhaps our materialism is rooted in a collective amnesia for one of the raisons d'etre of most world religions.<br /><br />Ken Gorfinklegorfdorfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04087448952306067747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030144.post-38905849562157647422016-09-22T13:25:00.413+03:002016-09-22T13:25:00.413+03:00Thought provoking in too many ways to respond to i...Thought provoking in too many ways to respond to in a brief comment. (For one, think about the cognitive egocentrism that appears to be characteristic of various contemporary Orthodox Jewish groups, including one that claims it "listens attentively" to views other than its own.) (For another, think about the "anti-authority" aspects of Orthodox Jewish groups of recent decades, even "the Orthodox Caucus" you knew so well.) (For another, think of the after-shocks of WWII still reverberating through "the West", with a sort of civilizational post-traumatic stress syndrome.) (Then there are the "smaller" developments that have had a wide-ranging effect on "the West", such as wide-spread effective techniques of contraception.) (And consider that undefined general term you have been using, "the West": Western culture is so richly varied that I think you would do well to define more specifically which aspects of it and which "leading groups" in it are the ones to whom you are referring.) Just one brief non-parenthetic comment: You suggest that we are "in the midst of just such a wave [of Muslim religious fervor]". It seems to me that we cannot know whether or not that is true. For all we know - and there are concrete indicators of this - we are only at the beginning of such a wave... David Mescheloffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14415397137159722954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030144.post-45676672377598196842016-09-22T11:44:05.192+03:002016-09-22T11:44:05.192+03:00contribution to the final bracketed note:
on triu...contribution to the final bracketed note:<br /><br />on triumphalist Islam (the problem for the whole world)<br />http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/197151/triumphalist-religiosity<br /><br />on the combo of religious and honor-shame emotions in responding to creation of israel:<br />http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/176673/emotional-nakba<br />rlandeshttp://www.theaugeanstables.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030144.post-65375110650405670502016-09-22T11:08:07.031+03:002016-09-22T11:08:07.031+03:00Interesting, but I lately have wanted to keep it t...Interesting, but I lately have wanted to keep it terse: Egypt's great pyramids existed tens of centuries before Mohammed was born. Islam/the Arab world would change dramatically if they reflected on this fact more often. The Arabs are are smart. Islam doped them in 625 or thereabout, sadly.Lurene Giseehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12752227242814746994noreply@blogger.com