[Righting]

So true, the Ottoman Empire is seen by many as a "moderate" era, somehow, with so much bloodshed (if you add up the millions of Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians...), it's astonishing.
Maybe it's because of some relatively peaceful times that these historians look to overshadow such important events in history?
Honestly? It was the recent rise in Islamism in the elected party in Turkey, and Turkish 'Flotilla Jihad' incident, that prompted me (among other events) to widen this subject about them.

[RobbyS]

Bernard Lewis thinks that these historians wear ideological blinkers. The enlightened thinkers hated the Church and Christianity and revised the historical view of Mohammed and his religion and looked upon it as a “rational” faith, with no supernatural elements. Most still have this naive view of Islam.