Tunisian Intellectual Al-Afif Al-Akhdar On the Arab Identity Crisis and Education in the Arab World


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..........."Why do expressions of tolerance, moderation, rationalism, compromise, and negotiation horrify us, but [when we hear] fervent cries for vengeance, we all dance the war dance? Why have the people of the world managed to mourn their pasts and move on, while we have established, hard and fast, our gloomy bereavement over a past that does not pass? Why do other people love life, while we love death and violence, slaughter and suicide, and [even] call it heroism and martyrdom…?"
...........The Fundamentalist Answer to the Identity Crisis: A Return to Allah, Riding on a Belt of Explosives............... In religious narcissism [this has meant] that Islam, the 'one true religion,' must triumph over the other religions that are 'false'..............Since the Arabs were transformed from a conquering nation into a conquered nation, Islamic religious law has closed in on itself, and has become Jihad law prohibiting resembling or imitating 'the infidels,' or interacting with them…......