My Favorite.....
hurchill,”The River War”
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!
Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step, and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it (Islam) has vainly struggled,the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”
I started reading that book a week and a half ago. I am reading an unabridged 1899 version. It is amazing Churchill's command of the English language and his assessment of Mohammedans, Arabs, the ethic diversity of Sudanese natives. I can only assume that his assessment was valid at that time. It is completely unvarnished. It would be impossible to write the same words today using acceptable language. While the correct words still exist, they are no longer acceptable in our politically correct world. Churchill used terrible words to describe the exact nature of the people who lived in Sudan; terms like savages, Negros, aboriginals, Muslim, etc. He provided a historical profile, going back to when Arabs invaded the Sudan. He discussed the slave trade from Sudan to Jeddah and made reasonable arguments for imperial intervention to stop abuses of the savage natives of the Sudan and thwart the curses of Mohammedanism.
Guess what. Churchill was correct in 1899, and he would be correct today. There still exists a slave trade where the darkest of skin colored people in Sudan are taken by Muslims and sold into slavery. Of course, today some people can't identify the root of problems because they have been constrained by the notion of moral equivalency and that diversity is a good thing.
Churchill wrote with the tone of an exceptionalist, and he was correct because at the time England was exceptional in its morality, culture, industry, and in most other besides their food. England has since then rectified their cuisine issues but forgot the importance of exceptional morality and culture which used to be the hallmark of the west. Too many in America now have forgotten the same things. Attacks on Churchill are simply plays by Marxists elites that want to rewrite history to eliminate any arguments against Marxism today. Heaven forbid that people actually read history from original sources and see how it repeats today.