Thursday 12 May 2016

Homo Kaplanensis: “Europe Was Defined By Islam. And Islam Is Redefining It Now.” > Hugh Fitzgerald

An article about Europe and Islam in the Atlantic.
Interesting that The Atlantic should be so soft in this article as they've been sound in the past. Eg Graeme Woods' excellent "What ISIS really wants"
Hugh Fitzgerald's does a good critique in The New English Review. He's a bit long winded, but worth the time. He knows his stuff.
His two main points: (1) Europe was not defined by Islam. And (2) it will define Europe's future only if Europe lets it, in which case the outcome cannot be good.
Looking around at Islam in practice there's nothing positive it can add to Europe's modern enlightenment values. At least I can't think of anything. All I can see are Islamic values that will drag Europe back centuries. There's growing alarm at that realisation. See Trevor Phillips in the post this morning.