The roots of anti-Muslim bigotry (Boston Globe)

Boston Globe ^ | April 4, 2011 | James Carroll

[reaganaut1]

... [P]ervasive negative attitudes toward Islam go far deeper into the American psyche even than these manifestations suggest, for contempt toward the religion of Mohammed is a foundational pillar of Western civilization. That it is unacknowledged only makes it more pernicious.

European Christian imagination jelled — as European, as Christian, and as imagination — around the mythic 732 triumph of Charles Martel over “infidel’’ Muslim forces in a battle near Poitiers, France. That may seem like an eternity ago and a world away, but still-powerful attitudes that show up in suspicions of widespread Muslim “radicalization’’ were generated then. In epoch-shaping chansons de geste celebrating Charles Martel, Islam was portrayed as nothing less than the anti-Christ. So resonant was its defeat, that Charles Martel was empowered as the effective founder of cohesive European social structures, with his lineage (through his grandson Charlemagne) extending even to present-day royalty.

Edward Gibbon famously shuddered at the thought that, but for Charles Martel, the Koran would be taught to the “circumcised’’ at Oxford instead of the New Testament. (It seems not to have occurred to Gibbon that, had the Poitiers battle gone the other way, Oxford, which dates to 1167, might have been founded years earlier — by, say, disciples of the great Muslim scholar Avicenna, who died in 1037.) From early on, Western civilization understood itself positively against the negative foil of Islam, a polarity that was institutionalized during the decisive centuries of the Crusades. That Christendom failed to liberate the Holy Land from infidel control only made permanent the fear and hatred of Islam.

Meanwhile, as is always true of bigotry, Europeans knew very little about actual Muslims.

[Gene Eric]

bfl

[Scarpetta]

Anybody watch that special on CNN about the Muzzies Next Door?

[Pharmboy]

Yep...you nailed it. The only lefties that may be crazier than our own are the lefties in Israel. I have an Israeli friend who occasionally tells me about their last idiotic statement or action. They are totally surrounded and STILL sympathize with the Palies...at least we’re not surrounded. Yet.

[jersey117]

All I can say is.... I never gave muslims a second thought until they murdered 3,000 people on our soil.

[Jacquerie]

Thanks, but I’ll accept David Horowitz’ extensive research over your opinion.

[Balding_Eagle]

Thanks, but I’ll accept David Horowitz’ extensive research over your opinion.

That's fine, but do you think Leftist are wise people?

[tacticalogic]

European Christian imagination jelled — as European, as Christian, and as imagination — around the mythic 732 triumph of Charles Martel over “infidel’’ Muslim forces in a battle near Poitiers, France.

What were these "Muslim forces", the followers of the "religion of peace", doing in France, eh?

[BwanaNdege]

So, which was the better education?

College Classes?

Working and taking classes simultaneously?

The sheet rocking business and associated working environment (co-workers, employer, customers, weather, permits, delivery schedules (or lack thereof)?

Your entire life which flashed before your eyes during the encounter with the dog??

[andy58-in-nh]

For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, Carroll is a left-wing, ex-Catholic priest who detests his own country every bit as much as radical Islamists do. His words are worth sober contemplation, if only to discern how deep runs the river of self-loathing within the American Left. It is so deep in fact, that they will excuse or ignore all atrocities committed by our enemies, ascribing "bigotry" to those who dare call attention to them.

I look forward quite obviously in vain for a follow-up article on the "roots of anti-Catholic bigotry". Or anti-Semitic bigotry, for that matter. Self hatred and love of "The Other" instead continue to nourish the poisonous roots of Liberalism.