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"One of the main arguments I make in the book - and perhaps the most controversial argument, which has gotten me attacked from both left and right - is that Isl
by JPKab 10y ago
"One of the main arguments I make in the book - and perhaps the most controversial argument, which has gotten me attacked from both left and right - is that Islam is, in fact, exceptional in how it relates to politics, law and governance. In both theory and practice, Islam has been, is and will continue to be resistant to secularization. In other words, Islam is different. It is fundamentally different than other major religions."
I 100% agree with this, and I think it is for the same reasons that Islam was such a tremendously empowering force for its followers prosperity in the Middle Ages.
- _of 10y agoIt doesn't seem like a "tremendously empowering force for its followers prosperity" today.
- maxharris 10y agoI think it is for the same reasons that Islam was such a tremendously empowering force for its followers prosperity in the Middle Ages. But what about Avicenna and others who translated and propagated Aristotelian and other Greek ideas? This was done in a period before a religious consolidation of sorts, wherein these ideas faded in the Islamic world. (Incidentally, Avicenna's work was the route through which Thomas Aquinas was exposed to Aristotle, which set off a chain of philosophical progress that spanned several centuries, eventually culminating in the Enlightenment.)