If you haven't been following it - there's been a rambunctious, but mostly Rulez-following conversation in the comments to the 21 Mar H&I post. It amply demonstrates why I have the Rule about no gratuitous personal snarkage in serious conversations, and the ample range of thought and position among those who congregate here. Worth the trip downstream to read. And not because of *my* contribution - I just refereed. But, before you go down to do that, you should go over and read Bernard Lewis' 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture at the AEI website.
Here's an excerpt to pique your interest:
We see with the ending of the era of outside domination, the reemergence of certain older trends and deeper currents in Middle Eastern history, which had been submerged or at least obscured during the centuries of Western domination. Now they are coming back again. One of them I would call the internal struggles--ethnic, sectarian, regional--between different forces within the Middle East. These have of course continued, but were of less importance in the imperialist era. They are coming out again now and gaining force, as we see for example from the current clash between Sunni and Shia Islam--something without precedent for centuries.The other thing more directly relevant to my theme this evening is the signs of a return among Muslims to what they perceive as the cosmic struggle for world domination between the two main faiths--Christianity and Islam. There are many religions in the world, but as far as I know there are only two that have claimed that their truths are not only universal--all religions claim that--but also exclusive; that they--the Christians in the one case, the Muslims in the other--are the fortunate recipients of God's final message to humanity, which it is their duty not to keep selfishly to themselves--like the Jews or the Hindus--but to bring to the rest of humanity, removing whatever obstacles there may be on the way. This self-perception, shared between Christendom and Islam, led to the long struggle that has been going on for more than fourteen centuries and which is now entering a new phase. In the Christian world, now at the beginning of the 21st century of its era, this triumphalist attitude no longer prevails,
and is confined to a few minority groups. In the world of Islam, now in its early 15th century, triumphalism is still a significant force, and has found expression in new militant movements.
Read that, then go read the comments in the 21 Mar H&I Fires post. Good stuff. H/t, CAPT H for the link.
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