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Originally Posted by Flash Walken
The Spanish inquisition reached it's torturous height during the tail end of the Enlightenment period, and only preserved the free expression of religion in 1966. Forced recitation of the lords prayer in US public schools wasn't revoked until 1963.
It took hundreds of years for this evolution to take place, and those of us in the West who have witnessed the re-emergence of Protestant terror groups like the KKK for example, understand this transformation isn't close to complete.
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Progress is never complete. But we should take note when and how it happens, and make some effort to protect the values and institutions that foster it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
In fact, it's a pretty prescient example of historical precedence, as both ages of islamic enlightenment were ended by foreign military aggression and the subsequent galvanisation of religious/ethnic into a mono-religious resistance.
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The Ottoman Empire was the most sophisticated and innovative power in the world in the 17th century. By the end of the 18th century it was well on its way to becoming a fossilised backwater. When Europe was steaming ahead with innovation, commerce, and dazzling intellectual achievements, the Ottomans turned their backs on science in favour of piety.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Us in the west may want to look a bit closer at Islamic history if we want to avoid the same fate. Iran of the 1950s is essentially unrecognisable to much of the Iran of today. The same could be said for Baghdad of the 16th century compared to the 11th century.
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Secular-minded Iranians were outbred by their conservative rural countrymen (the same thing is happening in Turkey today). There's a lesson there, but not a palatable one. Baghdad never recovered from being sacked by the Mongols.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Being attacked by external forces is a significant barrier to free and open expression. Existential threats have routinely lead to various forms of fundamentalism in every corner of human history and culture. Islam is not unique here.
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The Arab world was shielded within the Ottoman Empire for centuries. People living in Syria or Iraq during the era when the Christian world leapfrogged the Islamic world had far more tranquil lives free of external threat than a Frenchman or German of the era.
And if being attacked by external forces is such a barrier to development and progress, how do we explain South Korea, which went from being one of the most impoverished parts of the world early in the 20th century, to being the battleground for a catastrophic war, to being one of the most prosperous and advanced countries in the world today? Or how about Japan? Or Vietnam?