Read Tarek Fateh's Chasing a Mirage recently. Loved it. Islam seems to be offering more than just a reprieve from being buried alive. Enough with the buried alive! It was horrific but when one is offered equality and is also not in danger of being buried alive then choosing the teachings of the latter philosophy seems madness.
The thing I liked most was the Islamic history lesson the book provided. Full of blood and slaves and harems and general drama - as all history is. Fateh shatters the image of the golden period of Islam as he goes through the centuries and searches for the Utopian Islamic state that everyone yearns for. Never existed. It is true that Muslims (we?) conquered and governed and built. They (we?) had huge advances in science and arts and music and architecture. However, those had nothing to do with their being Muslims or even living in an Islamic State. That happened because they started to think about science and arts and music. A natural consequence in this world of action and reaction we live in.
The thing I liked most was the Islamic history lesson the book provided. Full of blood and slaves and harems and general drama - as all history is. Fateh shatters the image of the golden period of Islam as he goes through the centuries and searches for the Utopian Islamic state that everyone yearns for. Never existed. It is true that Muslims (we?) conquered and governed and built. They (we?) had huge advances in science and arts and music and architecture. However, those had nothing to do with their being Muslims or even living in an Islamic State. That happened because they started to think about science and arts and music. A natural consequence in this world of action and reaction we live in.
