[SF-TX]

Richard,

Will you be quoting John Esposito as well?

Who is Karen Armstrong?

* Professor at London’s Leo Baeck College
* Justifies Palestinian suicide bombers as being motivated by “absolute hopelessness,” not hatred
* Outspoken critic of Israel and America
* Whitewashes the intolerant and violent elements of Islamic tradition


Karen Armstrong is a former Catholic nun who currently teaches Christianity and comparative religion at London's Leo Baeck College. Born in 1945, Armstrong entered a Roman Catholic convent in 1962 and left seven years later. She authored the 1982 book Through the Narrow Gate, wherein she detailed her experiences in the cloistered, regimented life of the convent. She earned an undergraduate degree in literature from Oxford University and thereafter taught literature at the University of London while she worked toward a PhD. Her doctoral dissertation was rejected three years later, however, thus precluding her from securing a permanent position at the university level. Armstrong found employment as head of the English department at a girls' school in London, but in 1982 she left the school and devoted her energies to working on television documentaries.

Armstrong recounts how, while in Israel in the mid-1980s producing a documentary about Saint Paul, she heard some Israelis refer derisively to "dirty Arabs" -- an incident that led her, she explains, to instantly recognize that "there was something fundamentally wrong" in Israel. Today's Israelis, says Armstrong, generally and inaccurately view themselves as victims of anti-Semitism and "cannot believe that it is not 1939 any more; the Israeli people are emotionally stuck in the horrors of the Nazi era." Moreover, she says "the Israelis can do what [wrongs] they want because America will always support them."

Armstrong contends that the 9/11 attacks taught Americans "that we now live in one world; that what happens in Gaza or Afghanistan or Arabia today will have repercussions in the United States or London tomorrow; that America is no longer protected by its great oceans or wealth or military prowess."

Dismissing the notion that radical Islam poses any special threat to non-Muslims, Armstrong largely blames the West for the deeds of Palestinian suicide bombers who target Israeli civilians: "The West has to share a responsibility for what is happening in the Middle East. If it had not persecuted the Jews, there would not have been the need for the creation of the state of Israel. The Muslim world did nothing to the Jews, and the Palestinians are paying the price for the sins of Europe."

According to Armstrong, suicide bombers are motivated by "absolute hopelessness," not by hatred. The Palestinians, she explains, "don't have F-16s, and they don't have tanks. They don't have anything to match Israel's arsenal. They only have their own bodies."

Armstrong played a key role in the production of a PBS series celebrating the life of the Prophet Muhammad, and offering a sanitized account of the prophet’s life, his deeds, and the religion he founded.

"The heart of Islam," says Armstrong, "beats with the heart of the American people. The passion that Islam has for equality -- Islam is one of the most egalitarian religions I know and has always lived out its egalitarianism. It's at its best historically when it has had egalitarian forms of government, and [it is] unhappy with authoritarian forms of government, as it has now. That's one of the reasons Islam is unhappy, because it has a lot of despots and bad government and tyrannical government, some of which are supported by the United States and the West generally. Similarly [there is] its passion for justice. The bedrock message of the Qur'an is not a doctrine but a simple command that it's right to share your wealth equally, bad to build up a private fortune selfishly, and good to try to create a just and decent society where poor and vulnerable people are treated with respect.... And Islam is a religion of peace. Like all the great world traditions, it recoils in horror from the violence of the world and struggles through to a position of peace. You can see that in the life of the Prophet Muhammad. The word 'Islam' is related etymologically to the word 'Salaam' -- 'peace.'"

Armstrong draws a parallel between conservative Christians and Muslim terrorists: "[T]he Christian right today has absorbed the endemic violence in American society: they oppose reform of the gun laws, for example, and support the death penalty. They never quote the Sermon on the Mount but base their xenophobic and aggressive theology on Revelation. Osama bin Laden is as just as selective in his use of scripture."

In her book, Islam: A Short History, Armstrong blames Christians for the alleged misapprehension that Islam is not a peaceful religion:

"Ever since the Crusades, the people of Western Christendom developed a stereotypical and distorted vision of Islam, which they regarded as the enemy of decent civilization.... It was, for example, during the Crusades, when it was Christians who had instigated a series of brutal holy wars against the Muslim world, that Islam was described by the learned scholar-monks of Europe as an inherently violent and intolerant faith, which had only been able to establish itself by the sword. The myth of the supposed fanatical intolerance of Islam has become one of the received ideas of the West."

After the deadly July 7, 2005 terrorist bombings in London, Armstrong said that “our priority must be to stem the flow of young people into organizations such as al-Qaida, instead of alienating them by routinely coupling their religion with immoral violence. Incorrect statements about Islam have convinced too many in the Muslim world that the west is an implacable enemy.”

Armstrong declared that “these [terrorist] acts may be committed by people who call themselves Muslims, but they violate essential Islamic principles. The Qur’an prohibits aggressive warfare, permits war only in self-defence and insists that the true Islamic values are peace, reconciliation and forgiveness.”

“Like the Bible,” Armstrong says, “the Qur’an has its share of aggressive texts, but like all the great religions, its main thrust is towards kindliness and compassion. Islamic law outlaws war against any country in which Muslims are allowed to practice their religion freely, and forbids the use of fire, the destruction of buildings and the killing of innocent civilians in a military campaign.”

Minimizing the oppressive nature of the fanatical form of Islam known as Wahhabism, Armstrong contends that “even though the narrow, sometimes bigoted vision of Wahhabism makes it a fruitful ground for extremism, the vast majority of Wahhabis do not commit acts of terror.”

In 2006, as Muslims around the world protested what they perceived to be negative remarks about Islam by Pope Benedict XVI, Armstrong published a piece in The Guardian which stated, “We cannot afford to maintain these ancient prejudices against Islam: The Pope’s remarks were dangerous, and will convince many more Muslims that the west is incurably Islamophobic.” “Our Islamophobia,” intoned Armstrong, “dates back to the time of the Crusades, and is entwined with our chronic anti-semitism.”

Armstrong alleges that “[U]ntil the 20th century, Islam was a far more tolerant and peaceful faith than Christianity. The Qur’an strictly forbids any coercion in religion and regards all rightly guided religion as coming from God; and despite the western belief to the contrary, Muslims did not impose their faith by the sword.”


Parts of this profile are adapted from the article"Professors for Suicide Bombers," written by Edward Alexander and published by FrontPageMagazine.com on June 26, 2003

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/i....asp?indid=773