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Recapturing the Arab Muslim World's Golden Age

(Washington Post) David Ignatius - Hisham Melhem, a prominent Lebanese journalist, visited the Great Mosque of Cordoba in southern Spain last May, where he found himself wondering how the Arab Muslim genius of a thousand years ago had veered in modern times toward such chaos and repression. He focused on the openness and tolerance of the Moorish kings of Andalusia, where not only Muslims but Jews and Christians prospered as well. He wrote in an-Nahar: "Today's Middle Eastern Muslims, with their narrow sectarian awareness, appear extremely far from the humane sources that under Islam made them the second civilization after the great Romans." The ethic of tolerance - so central to the zenith of Muslim culture - is precisely what seems missing in so many Arab countries today. The political culture is broken. Politicians on all sides lack the confidence that allows compromise and moderation. Politics is a zero-sum game, and everything is a fight to the death.
2013-07-19 00:00:00
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