Iran.Watch

I'm sorry! This comment-thing doesn't work any more, and I lost Dara's comments and other guys comments...Plz anyone of you knowing something about this stuff, just send me a few lines by email!

Besides that I don't even have time to blog, since I got 2 exams in a week!

But I found something horrible to show you. I got it from LittleGreenFootballs...
"The video you are about to watch is a rap video designed to inspire people to take up jihad against the West. Posted on a radical Islamic website based out of the United Kingdom, the video is undeniably entertaining, as professionally produced as any video you might see on MTV. Consider the irony: radical fundamentalism, sworn to destroy Western culture and beliefs, uses that culture to market its hate. Paralleling the same deception, the Islamic organization that produced and marketed this video claims to be an Islamic “human rights” group but in reality is a group sworn to support the killing of Jews, Christians and moderate Muslims."

[ For ADSL users -- For all the other people ]

I hated to watch it...the last part is horrible. The 2 Towers falling down, while someone is laughing aloud...Guess it's what they want. Generate hate...

"By all standards of the modern world—economic development, literacy, scientific achievement—Muslim civilization, once a mighty enterprise, has fallen low. Many in the Middle East blame a variety of outside forces. But underlying much of the Muslim world's travail may be a simple lack of freedom".

I found this article by Bernard Lewis on The Atlatic online. It seems to answer the question I was addressing in my latest posts...I'll read it.

I hope these few lines will make Ibn Khaldun's theory a little bit clearer...

According to him there is only one effective method for government to increase its revenues, and that is "through the equitable treatment of people and property and regard for them" so that "they have the incentive to make their capital bear fruit and grow". His bottom line is found in the section title "Injustice brings about the ruin of civilization".

Ibn Khaldun also expressed himself about politics and religion. He "ridiculed the claim of the philosophers that the ruler is necessarily one endowed by divine guidance for the exercise of the restraining influence of the religious law by noting that the majority of people have political communities without revealed guidance".

I'm going to bed now. Tomorrow I'll give you some links!

Have you ever heard about Ibn Khaldun? He was an arab historian living in the 14th century. Why am I talking about this guy? Cuz I read some lines of his work (Al Muqaddimah - the Introduction to History) and I think he has something to say about Muslim society. He would say something to all our actual opinionists/thinkers; he would say something to Boteach too!

I'll try to be very-very brief, as much as I can. Ibn Khaldun's theory: islamic economy collapsed because rights of ownership were always betrayed and crushed from governors. Following to this, every motivation to work and rationalize economy, failed. In Europe things were going different...but I'll try to talk about that in my next post.

P.S.: I will translate some lines of Ibn Khaldun's masterpiece; it will take a while since I have it in Italian...ciao!

P.S.II: If my English is not clear in some points, just tell me!

Ok, my English is not that good. That's why I'll try to make brief posts, as clear as possible. First of all, I'm gonna highlight the part of the Boteach's article I want to talk about.

[...] While the West was slogging its way through half a millennium of severe religious and intellectual repression, it was the Muslim world that shone brilliantly in advancing the world's knowledge. I am currently reading Richard Rubenstein's magnificent book, "Aristotle's Children," which chronicles the preservation of the ancient Greek thinkers by Islamic culture after they had been forgotten in the West. Al-Mamun, Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, established state-funded places of study, focusing on translations of Greek and other works of antiquity, that predated the first European universities by more than 300 years. The Abbasid Muslim Empire had an agricultural revolution in the 8th century that produced technological innovations the likes of which wouldn't been seen in the west until at least 1180. In the area of medical advancement, the 10th century Al-Razi of Baghdad wrote numerous groundbreaking medical books that Western medicine could not match until the 18th century. The Muslim Sultan Akbar was known for laws guaranteeing religious toleration and protection of women and children. [...]

So, the question is pretty clear. How come a "so brilliant" society, as the muslim society was until the 13th century, finished in this "masochistic status" (as THAT_AmericanGuy said)? You can start saying your opinion. I'll be back with sort of a theory...