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The Row Boat"Had we but world enough, and time..." *
Need and Belief in the Middle East9/06/2006 21:48:27Getting ready for school at UCSB, I've been reading through Stephen Humphreys's book, Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age (he teaches there). It is a wonderful primer for nonspecialists like me about the mingling of religion, particularly Islam, and politics in that region. It sets a wonderfully sensitive tone, which seems to me a strong basis for constructive thinking. The writing is comfy and engaging. The insight that strikes me most strongly so far is Humphreys's insistence that the driving forces in the region fall into usually "secular" categories, more or less: politics as usual, economics, ethnicities, things like that. The activities of leaders and governments in the region, which have often been attributed to religious fervor if not outright madness, he successfully demonstrates have basis in rational realities: Khomeini in '79, Hussein in '91, and so on. It is an important reminder for us in the West as observers, that when we are unable or unwilling to discern the sensible causes behind things, we jump to claim religiosity at work. Doing so is an injustice both to religiosity and sense. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
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