Posted on 02/15/2011 9:31:58 AM PST by mbarker12474
A fusion between two worlds began 1300 years ago with Tariq ibn Ziyad’s crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar in 711. Please join us to commemorate the brilliant contributions resulting from the blending of eastern and western cultures. The agenda will tell the vital story of the achievements when Christians, Jews, and Muslims thrived side by side in Western Europe, building a society that lit the Dark Ages. Experts will discuss how to transform education, promote tolerance, civility, political reform, and advance human development so that we can emulate the spirit and triumphs of the early years.
Diplomacy and Democratization • History, Culture, Religion, Arts & Architecture • Cultural Gala - Music, Food, Dance, Film • Economics & Trade • Hopes for the Future
Dr. Reza Aslan, University of California Professor and Internationally acclaimed Author
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University
Dr. Daniel Brumberg, Georgetown University Professor and Special Advisor for the United States Institute of Peace's Muslim World Initiative.
LEXINGTON, Va. Feb. 10, 2011 – Undoubtedly, many of you have received information about the controversy during the past few days surrounding VMI’s “East Meets West” Conference which will be held March 23-25, 2011. The purpose of this is to dispel some of the misinformation that is appearing in e-mail and blog postings and ensure you are aware of what this conference is truly about.
The online registration information on the VMI website contained a summary of the conference. In that overview it was stated that this year was the 1300th anniversary of Tariq ibn Ziyad’s crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and thus began the period when Muslims, Christians, and Jews began living together. The focus of the conference was to “celebrate the vital story of the achievements” when these groups thrived together and built a society that we now know as modern day Europe.
Regrettably, a blogger portrayed this as a “celebration” of a “Muslim invasion” and implied that we were hosting a conference that is some kind of pro-Islamic “celebration.” That is absolutely and unequivocally incorrect. VMI did change the wording of the conference overview on the registration website to eliminate this “confusion”; however, e-mail and blog postings have continued – including some from VMI alumni. Some have contacted VMI, and this misperception hopefully has been cleared up. For others, we hope this information answers any questions or concerns you might have.
The “East Meets West” conference is the sixth in a series of conferences convened since the opening of the VMI Center for Leadership and Ethics on topics of urgent and national importance. These conferences help prepare our cadets for the future and also serve to provide current and relevant information to our faculty and staff. VMI’s Department of Modern Languages and Cultures was the recipient of a grant from the Department of Defense in support of Arabic language training. “East Meets West” was designed specifically to supplement the study of Arabic language with complex information about history, culture, politics, economics, trade, and development, along with a strong component that provides hope for future relations between the East and the West. We believe VMI, in partnership with the Department of Defense, is the perfect place to add a robust component to facilitate a good understanding of the sophisticated complexities of the region. The conference has been carefully designed, through a series of panels and speakers, to provide balance and representation across the region and across views. It includes a cultural event designed to provide a real life experience for attendees who have never visited the region. It will conclude on a note of hope for the future.
The initial materials, designed to begin to inform attendees about some of our speakers and panelists, have continued to evolve as other speakers who had been invited earlier informed us of their ability to clear their calendars and deliver presentations. Over the past few days we have talked to dozens of people who have taken the time to call or write about the conference. We have listened carefully to their feedback on our conference plans, and we have sought recommendations from each person who has contacted us. We do understand the absolute necessity to provide a conference of exceptional caliber, representing a broad range of views, and the Institute has a clear understanding of the history and delicate balance within this region.
We believe we have a responsibility to prepare our cadets for the world that all of our graduates will face, regardless of their chosen career path. It is important to note that over 60 percent of our cadets will receive commissions in military service upon graduation. Many of those who have made the decision to commission, along with others, major in International Studies & Political Science, the most highly subscribed major at the Institute. Many choose to receive training in the Arabic language. VMI has the largest college Arabic language program in the nation, another signal of our commitment to their preparedness for life after graduation.
Please assure those who have questions or concerns that the “East Meets West” conference is for the purposes stated above and are not as represented in some of the blog postings and e-mail they may have read. We can assure you that VMI is extraordinarily sensitive to these issues – particularly since we are producing graduates who serve their country… many of whom are presently deployed in harm’s way.
Let us all celebrate the destructionshalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
of Western Civilization.Let us all celebrate the murder
of the Sunday people
then the Saturday people.
Somehow I never wondered if VMI had gone over to the dark side.
Well, thats one way to put it. Another way to put it is that several hundred years before the "crusades" muslim armies conquered all of Christian North Africa, Christian Spain, and came within a hair's breadth of conquering Christian France. And it took seven hundred years of warfare to get them out of Europe, and Christians never reconquered North Africa and despite a couple hundred years of fighting, never reconquered the once Christian middle east or the once Christian asia minor.
I do agree that an arabic language program at a military institute is a good thing; we are at the beginning of a long war and arabic is going to be the key. A good understanding of Islam is also key, but they should be careful not to romanticize the reality.
That is the myth that the NWO wants to foist upon us.
The reality is that life on tha islamic plantation after the muslim invasions was not in any sense peaceful and cordial.
Those years of subjugation and oppression were a horror show. No one thrived except the slave owners - the Muslims.
So, why’d Spain kick out the muslims in 1492 if things were so hunky-dory?
What a bunch of garbage at VMI.
“1300th anniversary of Tariq ibn Ziyad’s crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and thus began the period when Muslims, Christians, and Jews began living together.”
What a novel way of describing an invasion and war.
Are they also going to celebrate for instance, the joining of French and German culture for a few years in the 1940s?
Because they were EVIL nativists.
Why did Spain and Italy smash Islam at The Battle of Lepanto in 1571? The Holy League was helped by rifle (armbuster) barrels made by a Northern Italian company called Beretta S.P.A.
The VMI students should go to YouTube and search The Battle of Lepanto to learn something about how Islam engaged in slavery and still does.
It is a part of Spanish history. It was a time when Jews lived better than anywhere else in Europe. When the Christians took over, the jews were expelled from Spain, as they were from every Christian country in western Europe.
It’s a time worth studying, and I’m sure that it looks better in retrospect than it did during the time, certainly, 20th and 21 century America is better for Jews than anywhere, anytime, but until the 20th century American, Islamic Spain was the best place and time for Jews since we lost our independence to the Romans.
If Christians want to take that personally, so be it, but history is history. There was a 200 year timespan, and it was by all accounts a golden age. In fact, until the 20th century, Islamic countries were more tolerant of Jews than were Christian countries.
Sorry. No time. I’m still too busy with NASA’s campaign to convince the world of Islam’s rich contributions to math, physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology, telecommunications, mass transit, sword-making, embrace of diversity, Women’s rights, the GLAD agenda, temperance in criminology, the movie industry, human rights, and Muhammed’s newly discovered My Favorite Jokes book.
Is this the kind of crap they learn at USMA too?
Dear Editor:
“Muslim Spain was a perfect example of a flourishing society in which Jews, Christians and Muslims lived in mutual respect and cooperation.”
Muslim Spain was Christian Spain for over 400 years before being conquered by Islamic Armies in the 8th Century. That is the way the Islamic Religion has been historically spread, though military invasion and occupation. Treatment of conquered people has the same goal, the minimizing of other religions and conversion of the indigenous people. Among other rules for non Muslims in Muslim Spain; Christians and Jews could not bear arms — Muslims could; Christians and Jews could not ride horses — Muslims could; Christians and Jews had to get permission to build or fix places or worship — Muslims did not; Christians and Jews had to pay certain taxes which Muslims did not; Christians could not proselytize — Muslims could; Christians and Jews had to bow to their Muslim masters; Christians and Jews had to live under the laws set forth in the Koran, not under either their own religious or secular law; Christian’s and Jew’s word in a court of law was not equal to a Muslim’s Word; Christian and Jewish families had to give up a son for conversion and military service in Muslim armies and the most beautiful and largest Christian Churches were converted to Mosques. And the list goes on.
Today, 1300 years later, a Christian or Jew living in an Islamic country will still have to live nearly under these very same laws. I can see why the head of the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations would want us all to do “our part” to create such a world.
Regards,
2banana
Check referred comment.
Remember the Borg in Star Trek? That is Islam. That is all you need to know.
Thank God for Charles Martel. And if you really want to read something that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, google Chrislam.
What a lying sack.
I love how they put “confusion” in quotes - as if anyone who would read “celebrate” and misinterpret it as a “celebration”.
Condescending SOB.
This kind of quibbling would have gotten anyone drummed out of the corps once upon a time.
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