<b>Abdullah Ibn Umm-Maktoum</b>


Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum was a cousin of Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, Mother of the Believers, may God be pleased with her. His father was Qays ibn Said and his mother was Aatikah bint Abdullah. She was called Umm Maktum (Mother of the Concealed One) because she gave birth to a blind child.


Abdullah witnessed the rise of Islam in Makkah. He was amongst the first to accept Islam. He lived through the persecution of the Muslims and suffered what the other companions of the Prophet experienced. His attitude, like theirs, was one of firmness, staunch resistance and sacrifice. Neither his dedication nor his faith weakened against the violence of the Quraysh onslaught. In fact, all this only increased his determination to hold on to the religion of God and his devotion to His messenger.


Abdullah was devoted to the noble Prophet and he was so eager to memorize the Quran that he would not miss any opportunity to achieve his hearts desire. Indeed, his sense of urgency and his insistence could sometimes have been irritating as he, unintentionally, sought to monopolize the attention of the Prophet.


In this period, the Prophet, peace be upon him, was concentrating on the Quraysh notables and was eager that they should become Muslims. On one particular day, he met Utbah ibn Rabiah and his brother Shaybah, Amr ibn Hisham better known as Abu Jahl, Umayyah ibn Khalaf and Walid ibn Mughirah, the father of Khalid ibn Walid who was later to be known as Sayf Allah or 'the sword of God'. He had begun talking and negotiating with them and telling them about Islam. He so much wished that they would respond positively to him and accept Islam or at least call off their persecution of his companions.


While he was thus engaged, Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum came up and asked him to read a verse from the Quran. "O messenger of God," he said, "teach me from what God has taught you."


The Prophet frowned and turned away from him. He turned his attention instead to the prestigious group of Quraysh, hoping that they would become Muslims and that by their acceptance of Islam they would bring greatness to the religion of God and strengthen his mission. As soon as he had finished speaking to them and had left their company. he suddenly felt partially blinded and his head began to throb violently. At this point the following revelation came to him:


<b>"He frowned and turned away when the blind man approached him ! Yet for all you knew, (O Muhammad), he might perhaps have grown in purity or have been reminded of the Truth, and helped by this reminder. Now as for him who believes himself to be self-sufficient, to him you gave your whole attention, although you are not accountable for his failure to attain to purity. But as for him who came unto you full of eagerness and in awe of God, him did you disregard. </b>


Nay, verily, this is but a reminder and so, whoever is willing may remember Him in the light of His revelations blest with dignity, lofty and pure, borne by the hands of messengers, noble and most virtuous.'


<b>(Surah Abasa 8O: 116) </b>


These are the sixteen verses which were revealed to the noble Prophet about Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum, sixteen verses that have continued to be recited from that time till today and shall continue to be recited.


From that day the Prophet did not cease to be generous to Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum. to ask him about his affairs, to fulfill his needs and take him into his council whenever he approached. This is not strange. Was he not censured by God in a most severe manner on Abdullah's account? In fact, in later years, he often greeted Ibn Umm Maktum with these words of humility:


"Welcome unto him on whose account my Sustainer has rebuked me." When the Quraysh intensified their persecution of the Prophet and those who believed with him, God gave them permission to emigrate. Abdullahs response was prompt. He and Musab ibn Umayr were the first of the Companions to reach Madinah.


As soon as they reached Yathrib, he and Musab began discussing with the people, reading the Quran to them and teaching them the religion of God. When the Prophet, upon whom be peace, arrived in Madinah, he appointed Abdullah and Bilal ibn Rabah to be muadh-dhins for the Muslims, proclaiming the Oneness of God five times a day, calling man to the best of actions and summoning them to success .


Bilal would call the adhan and Abdullah would pronounce the iqamah for the Prayer. Sometimes they would reverse the process. During Ramadan, they adopted a special routine. One of them would call the adhan to wake people up to eat before the fast began. The other would call the adhan to announce the beginning of dawn and the fast. It was Bilal who would awaken the people and Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum who would announce the beginning of dawn.


One of the responsibilities that the Prophet placed on Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum was to put him in charge of Madinah in his absence. This was done more than ten times, one of them being when he left for the liberation of Makkah.


Soon after the battle of Badr, the Prophet received a revelation from God raising the status of the mujahideen and preferring them over the qaideen (those who remain inactive at home). This was in order to encourage the mujahid even further and to spur the qaid to give up his inactivity. This revelation affected ibn Umm Maktum deeply. It pained him to be thus barred from the higher status and he said:


O messenger of God. If I could go on jihad, I would certainly do." He then earnestly asked God to send down a revelation about his particular case and those like him who were prevented because of their disabilities from going on military campaigns.


His prayer was answered. An additional phrase was revealed to the Prophet exempting those with disabilities from the import of the original verse. The full ayah became:


<b>"Not equal are those who remain seated among the believers, except those who possess disabilities, and those who strive and fight in the way of God with their wealth and their persons." </b>


(Surah an-Nisaa, 4: 95).


In spite of thus being excused from jihad, the soul of Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum refused to be content with staying among those who remained at home when an expedition was in progress. Great souls are not content with remaining detached from affairs of great moment. He determined that no campaign should by-pass him. He fixed a role for himself on the battle field. He would say: "Place me between two rows and give me the standard. I will carry it for you and protect it, for I am blind and cannot run away. "


In the fourteenth year after the hijrah, Umar resolved to mount a major assault against the Persians to bring down their State and open the way for the Muslim forces. So he wrote to his governors:


"Send anyone with a weapon or a horse or who can offer any form of help to me. And make haste."


Crowds of Muslims from every direction responded to Umar's call and converged on Madinah. Among all these was the blind mujahid Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum. Umar appointed Saud ibn Abi Waqqas commander over the army, gave him instructions and bade him farewell. When the army reached Qadisiyyah, Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum was prominent, wearing a coat of armor and fully prepared. He had vowed to carry and protect the standard of the Muslims or be killed in the process.


The forces met and engaged in battle for three days. The fighting was among the most fierce and bitter in the history of the Muslim conquests. On the third day, the Muslims achieved a mighty victory as one of the greatest empires in the world collapsed and one of the most secure thrones fell. The standard of Tawhid was raised in an idolatrous land. The price of this clear victory was hundreds of martyrs. Among them was Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum. He was found dead on the battlefield clutching the flag of the Muslims.

Bismillah


as salam alykom


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Interesting hearing the Christian response to the disaster on TV in particular. On Christian channels, and the most popular, one Songs Of Praise in the UK, the answer to why God has done this is not to test us or definately not judgement. One reverend described people who think it is some kind of judgement as fools (Rev John Bell). His response was the reason why the Tsunami raised and wiped out so many people, was so in the resulting pain and grief God can share in the suffering and be there with his children.


He then seemed to imply God had nothing to do with the disaster. Because the people once asked Jesus why the tower fell on a group of them, they asked if it was a Judgement. Jesus just said "no it was simply a tower and it fell" The reverend likened this story to the disaster, these were his own words.


So my Question to Christians who scan this board, is does God in Christianity as you practice it have any control over the elements? Because according to this reverend on TV he doesn't, things just happen for no reason. This is opposite to Islamic thought...


<b><i>"Not for (idle) sport did We create the heavens and the earth and all that is between!" (The Noble Qur'an 21-16)</i></b>


Please help. Am confused. Genuine Question. Was this reverend an Idiot, or is this the view you hold give or take a denomination or sect. I'm not asking for the Christian "Answer" to this disaster as we can all agree only God knows best. But i'm interested in how a Christian explains this to themselves, to the best of their Human ability.


Assalamu Alalikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh

The Prophet (SWA) said "How marvellous is the affair of the believer!


Everything that happens to him is good, and this does not apply to anyone except the believer.


If somthing good befalls him he gives thanks for it and that is good for him. If somthing bad befalls him, he bears it with patience and that is good for him." MUSLIM (2999).

Dear brother and Sister my Allah bless you all


i have few question to ask , i would like to know what is


A) Jub-ul-Huzan


Haviyah


my second question is if knownly a senior memeber of your family dis-like you and wanted to see you destory , or to live in poor condition can you ie answer that person back if he was ie older than you lets say person A was 20 and person was 45 years old ,


my final question is if your own parents did what seem to you treat you unfairly


can you stand up to them with our breaking Islamic rules


thats all


take care


Waheed Rafiq

As the Muslim world came under attack from the west, Hajj was a centre for Muslims from all over the world to meet, brainstorm, and draw strength and inspiration from each other to tackle the challenges facing the Ummah. Thus the short-lived jihad movement of Sayyid Ahmed of Rae Bareli against the British in India was initiated shortly after he returned from Hajj in 1822. Five years later Imam Shamil of Daghestan and Shaikh Abdul Qadir al-Jaziri met at the Hajj, discussed their struggles against the Russians in the Caucasus and the French in North Africa respectively, and appealed to fellow Muslims for support. Such episodes are commonplace in our history.


For a modern example, one might look to the experience of Malcolm X (al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz), who returned to the US from Hajj in 1964 with a better understanding of the state of the Muslim world. Hajj was an eye-opener for Malcolm X; it persuaded him to deviate from the stand of the so-called Nation of Islam, which advocated an anti-white racism. In his autobiography he admits that he discovered universal brotherhood in Makkah, where American "blue-eyed blonds" and African "Negroes" would embrace each other freely and willingly, sincerely and joyously. "This brotherhood, the people of all races, colors from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of one God. The color-blindness of the Muslim world’s religious society and the color-blindness of the Muslim world’s human society: these two influences had each day been making a greater impact, and an increasing persuasion against my previous way of thinking".


Malcolm X lived no longer than a year after his Hajj. Malcolm X, the most electrifying Muslim activist of the last century, absorbed the message of the Hajj and Islam, and became the greatest martyr of Islam in the cause of eradicating racism. In the concluding passage of his autobiography he writes, "Yes, I have cherished my ‘demagogue’ role. I know that societies often have killed the people who have helped to change these societies. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help to destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America – then, all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine."


Where are the Malcolm X’s of today? Why has America not produced another Malcolm X in the last 40 years, despite thousands of American Muslims performing the Hajj every year? Why has India not produced a Malcolm X, in spite of thousands of Muslims performing Hajj every year, and in spite of more than 250 million Dalits ("Untouchables") living under humiliating conditions of ‘sanctified apartheid’ in the "world’s largest democracy"? Do these hujjaj return home only with touristy, tacky souvenirs of the Hajj and of the homeland of Allah’s beloved Messenger (saw)?


The enemies of Islam realized the significance of Hajj long ago. In the early 1850s Sir Richard Burton visited Makkah and Madinah and reported on their potential as a focus for anti-British sentiment and activities. A few years later the British consul in Jeddah clarified further: "The point of real importance to England politically, I believe, is the Hejaz as the focus of Muslim thought and the nucleus from which radiate ideas, advice, instructions, and dogmatical implications... Certain persons proceed to Hajj for political reasons. Makkah, being free from European intrusion, is safe ground on which meetings can be held, ideas exchanged... Up to the present time we have kept no watch on those who come and go... thus meetings may be convened at Makkah at which combinations hostile to us may form without our knowing anything until the shell bursts in our midst... If this consulate could have a trusty Muslim agent at Makkah, I believe a great deal of valuable information could be obtained."


This early western insight is central to understanding every subsequent political development in the region. If the British reached this understanding of the importance of the Haramain and the Hajj 150 years ago, there can be no doubt that western decision-makers – in London, Paris, Washington, New York, Moscow and Tel Aviv alike– have been aware of it ever since. Their puppets in the Middle East, and in ‘Saudi Arabia’ in particular, cannot just be ignored because they are ‘only’ playing an ‘Oil Game’. Their interest is in much more than oil reserves. They have occupied the Haramain. The Saudis’ control of the Haramain and the Hajj on behalf of their western sponsors prevents the Hajj from serving a crucial function for the global Islamic movement. To understand the west’s recognition of the political importance of the Haramain and Hajj, and therefore the Saudis’ history and record, is incumbent upon Muslims everywhere. The usurpers of the Haramain are not just illegitimate and corrupt rulers, but are also conspirators plotting to distort or destroy the significance of the Hajj forever.

Many of the Latina converts say that their belief that women are treated better in Islam was a significant factor in converting. Critics may protest that wearing the veil marks a woman as property, but some Latina converts say they welcome the fact that they are no longer whistled at walking down a street. "People have an innate response that I'm a religious person, and they give [me] more respect," says Jenny Yanez, another Latina Muslim. "You're not judged if you're in fashion or out of fashion."


Other Latina Muslims say they also like the religion's emphasis on fidelity to one's spouse and family.


But for many family members and friends, these conversions come as a surprise - often an unwelcome one. They may know little of Islam other than what they have heard of the Taliban and other extremist groups.


That creates an inaccurate image, insists Leila Ahmed, a professor of women's studies and religion at Harvard University. "It astounds me, the extent to which people think Afghanistan and the Taliban represent women and Islam." What's really going on, she says, is a reshaping of the relationship between women and Islam. "We're in the early stages of a major rethinking of Islam that will open Islam for women. [Muslim scholars] are rereading the core texts of Islam - from the Koran to legal texts - in every possible way."


http://news.ibn.net/newsframe.asp?url=http...11s02-ussc.html

American Soldier Tries To Unveil Iraqi Girl By Force


Jan 04, 2005


By Omar Al-Faris, JUS And Muhammad Abu Nasr, Free Arab Voice


It has often been said that the Americans occupying Iraq have no understanding of Islam or the Iraqi culture. They blast music from their tanks which is haram, violate the holy places and fail to understand the high level of women within the culture. It has been widely broadcasted that “veiled” woman are oppressed which could not be further from the truth. The veil is a sign of piety and a command of Allah (swt) in order to protect the purity of woman. Woman have the opposite status in Islam than is publicized and this latest incident in Ramadi shows that US soldiers are either are ignorant of the deep meaning of Hijab or don’t care. Either way, it fused a division between local police and US occupation forces yesterday.


Clashes erupted between US troops and Iraqi police at a US checkpoint in the center of Ramadi on Monday morning. Eyewitnesses told Mafkarat al-Islam that the battles broke out at about 10am when a US solider insisted on searching a veiled Iraq girl who was with her mother. The US soldier was determined to lift her veil, claiming that resistance fighters could disguise themselves in women’s clothing.


Witnesses reported that the Iraqi girl refused to lift the veil from her face, causing the American soldier to try to pull it off by force. At that point the Iraqi policemen intervened and clashed with the Americans, sparking a battle that lasted 15 minutes.


The reporter said that the fighting ended with the Americans arresting five members of the local police force, while four others escaped together with the mother and the Iraqi girl who was never unveiled. The stand of the Ramadi policemen against the American occupiers brought them the strong sympathies of the local people.


__________________

It's a new site that someone i know built....


it looks good for a start


here

<b>I also believe we are engaged in a struggle with Islam. Since the collapse of communism, Islam presents the only coherent challenge to our way of life. </b>


But it is primarily an ideological war and I do not believe, as Tony Blair and George W Bush seem to, that it can be won by imposing western democratic institutions upon Islamic countries with bombs and troops.


It might be won, however, by smothering Islamic countries with the accoutrements of western affluence, such as affordable white goods, television and the other gentle vices of western civilisation. The ordinary adherents of all ascetic creeds, of which Marxism and Islam are but two, tend to be susceptible to the softening temptations of avarice.


If we can buy off Islam in such a way then Turkish membership of the EU will have been a success and we might extend the invitation to other Muslim countries. So those curious whirling dervishes could even become symbols of hope.


<b>Warning against the Lures of Shaytan</b>


Allah warns the Children of Adam against Iblis and his followers, by explaining about his ancient enmity for the father of mankind, Adam peace be upon him. Iblis plotted to have Adam expelled from Paradise, which is the dwelling of comfort, to the dwelling of hardship and fatigue (this life) and caused him to have his private part uncovered, after it had been hidden from him. This, indeed, is indicative of deep hatred (from Shaytan towards Adam and mankind). Allah said in a similar Ayah,


[أَفَتَتَّخِذُونَهُ وَذُرِّيَّتَهُ أَوْلِيَآءَ مِن دُونِى وَهُمْ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ بِئْسَ لِلظَّـلِمِينَ بَدَلاً]


(Will you then take him (Iblis) and his offspring as protectors and helpers rather than Me, while they are enemies to you What an evil is the exchange for the wrongdoers.) [18:50].


[وَإِذَا فَعَلُواْ فَـحِشَةً قَالُواْ وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهَآ ءَابَاءَنَا وَاللَّهُ أَمَرَنَا بِهَا قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْفَحْشَآءِ أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ - قُلْ أَمَرَ رَبِّي بِالْقِسْطِ وَأَقِيمُواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ وَادْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ - فَرِيقًا هَدَى وَفَرِيقًا حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الضَّلَـلَةُ إِنَّهُمُ اتَّخَذُوا الشَّيَـطِينَ أَوْلِيَآءَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ ]


(28. And when they commit a Fahishah, they say: "We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has commanded it for us.'' Say: "Nay, Allah never commands Fahishah. Do you say about Allah what you know not'') (29. Say: "My Lord has commanded justice and that you should face Him only, in every Masjid and invoke Him only, making your religion sincere to Him. As He brought you (into being) in the beginning, so shall you be brought into being again.'') (30. A group He has guided, and a group deserved to be in error; (because) surely, they took the Shayatin as supporters instead of Allah, and think that they are guided.)


<b>People of the Scriptures try to extinguish the Light of Islam</b>


Allah says, the disbelieving idolators and People of the Scriptures want to,


[أَن يُطْفِئُواْ نُورَ اللَّهِ]


(extinguish the Light of Allah). They try through argument and lies to extinguish the guidance and religion of truth that the Messenger of Allah was sent with. Their example is the example of he who wants to extinguish the light of the sun or the moon by blowing at them! Indeed, such a person will never accomplish what he sought. Likewise, the light of what the Messenger was sent with will certainly shine and spread. Allah replied to the idolators' desire and hope,


[وَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ إِلاَّ أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَـفِرُونَ]


(but Allah will not allow except that His Light should be perfected even though the disbelievers (Kafirun) hate (it)) [9:32]. [Linguistincally] a Kafir is the person who covers something. For instance, night is called Kafiran [covering] because it covers things [with darkness]. The farmer is called Kafiran, because he covers seeds in the ground. Allah said in an Ayah,


[أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُ]


(thereof the growth is pleasing to the [Kuffar] tillers)[57:20].


Let's corrupt Turkey, it'll be the saving of them


Rod Liddle


December 19, 2004


All those of us committed to the notion of a culturally diverse Europe will be delighted that Turkey is about to be admitted to the EU.


Our continent is becoming drab and monocultural: it is difficult, sometimes, to tell a Swede from a Croat or a Lett from a Basque. They all wear the same clothes and listen to the same bland music, eat the new homogenous Eurodiet of pasta-lite, speak passable English and believe in nothing. The arrival of Turkey will add some welcome exoticism, an agreeable whiff of the orient.


We will embrace not merely the 50m or so implacably conservative Turkish Muslims from the weird and dusty moonscapes east of Istanbul, but also one of the world’s last communities of whirling dervishes.


These interesting and endangered people, disciples of the Mevlevi order of Sufi mystics, will, whirl in a counter-clockwise direction to escape the material encumbrances of this world and bring them closer to God. That’s a bit more fun than our traditional Christian services, isn’t it? They put on a whirling show every week in Istanbul and it is proving to be quite a hit with western tourists, or “travellers” as I suppose they would prefer to be known. In this globalised world increasingly we soft and affluent Europeans crave what the French call la différence.


The dervishes are renowned for their peaceable and affable disposition, which sets them apart from an awful lot of Turkish menfolk. In a recent opinion poll, more than 40% of Turkish men thought it was right to “discipline” and “punish” women for real or imagined transgressions.


According to an Amnesty International report this year, between one-third and one-half of Turkish women confess to having been beaten up by their loving husbands regularly. Others have simply been killed or forced to commit suicide. This long-standing tradition of persecuting women has, until recently, been aided by the civil code and the judiciary.


They in turn have all been informed by Islam, of course. I will not get into a theological discussion concerning precisely what the Koran, or Muhammad’s Hadiths, insist is the correct etiquette to be observed towards women. Perhaps we can just agree on the broad point that countries which are either Islamic or have a civil code drawn largely from Islam tend to view their women citizens in a manner that would not accord with the views of, say, Germaine Greer.


There has been much cheering at the fact that we will also welcome Turkey’s armed forces, which are very large in number and as we might recall from the traumatic first world war battle at Gallipoli, ferocious.


But remember, we’ll get the Turkish police force, too. And the “security services”.


Another Amnesty International report stated the following: “Torture in police custody remained widespread and was practised systematically.” By “torture”, the report referred not to the regrettable verbal bullying and bad manners which is without doubt imposed upon our own custodial charges, but, and I quote, “electric shocks, beatings, hanging by the arms”.


We will also welcome into our arms the “Turkish” Kurds. Or let me rephrase that; we will welcome into our arms the rest of the “Turkish” Kurds.


Somewhere in the region of 50,000 of them are here already, living largely in Stoke Newington and Turnpike Lane in northeast London. We let them in because we thought with some justification that the Turkish government might be inclined to persecute them.


Officially the Turkish government reckons it has killed 23,000 Kurds over the past couple of decades or so, which is right up there with the numbers of Kurds dispatched by Saddam Hussein in neighbouring Iraq. The Turkish government calls the people it killed terrorist separatists but the Kurds believe the majority were civilians.


Asked to choose between the Kurds and the Turks we might well become confused. Whatever the legitimacy of territorial aspirations of the Kurds, it is beyond doubt that the pre-eminent Kurdish party, the PKK, was an antediluvian Marxist terrorist organisation engaged in lucrative drug-running operations. It will be interesting to see if our Kurdish population trots back to Turkey when Ankara is admitted to the EU. Personally I doubt it.


And, once again, welcome Turkey. As we have seen, Denmark it ain’t. It is a singularity even alongside other potential or arriviste EU nations — Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova. Participation in the Eurovision Song Contest and the European Champions League seems to have convinced both the Turks and the EU that Europe starts not at the Bosporus, but just to the east of Lake Van.


I have no quarrel with this, any more than I have with the radical school of anti-colonialist African geographers who insist that Spain and Cyprus are part of what was once called the dark continent. Let everybody decide which continent they wish to belong to. Let democracy triumph over narrow geographical determinism.


The EU wishes Turkey to stop being beastly to the Kurds, hopes it will wean the Turkish police off re-enacting scenes from Midnight Express and best of all, wants Ankara to recognise Cyprus. All of which seem reasonable caveats to Turkish membership of a federal Europe.


But the EU might also drop any pretence at cultural equivalence, despite the protests from Ankara. Turkish women, Turkish atheists and Turkish homosexuals should be entitled to live their lives free from domestic or cultural oppression, and if that means a swift revision of the norms of Turkish society, so be it.


All of which marks me down as a bit of a hypocrite. I am usually no supporter of a federal Europe, partly at least because I object to the inevitable standardisation of hitherto sovereign and distinct states that has occurred over the past 30 years. In other words, I’m an anti-federalist because I object to precisely what Ankara is


objecting to now.


I also believe we are engaged in a struggle with Islam. Since the collapse of communism, Islam presents the only coherent challenge to our way of life.


But it is primarily an ideological war and I do not believe, as Tony Blair and George W Bush seem to, that it can be won by imposing western democratic institutions upon Islamic countries with bombs and troops.


It might be won, however, by smothering Islamic countries with the accoutrements of western affluence, such as affordable white goods, television and the other gentle vices of western civilisation. The ordinary adherents of all ascetic creeds, of which Marxism and Islam are but two, tend to be susceptible to the softening temptations of avarice.


If we can buy off Islam in such a way then Turkish membership of the EU will have been a success and we might extend the invitation to other Muslim countries. So those curious whirling dervishes could even become symbols of hope.


Source: The Sunday Times