Word: christian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...strictly forbids shirk-that is, the association of anyone or anything with God's divinity. Along with Moses and Abraham, Jesus is revered by Muslims as one of the 25 scriptural prophets of God, and Islam accepts both his virgin birth and his miracles. But Muslims believe that Christian faith in the divinity of Jesus is polytheism. They resent being called "Muhammadans," which suggests that Muhammad's role in Islam is similar to that of Jesus in Christianity. The Prophet is revered as God's final Messenger to mankind, but is not worshiped as a divine being...
...represented for Europe by Muhammad and his followers, Islam appeared out of Arabia in the 7th century and rapidly spread in all directions. For almost a millennium Christian Europe felt itself challenged (as indeed it was) by this last monotheistic religion, which claimed to complete its two predecessors. Perplexingly grand and "Oriental," incorporating elements of Judeo-Christianity, Islam never fully submitted to the West's power. Its various states and empires always provided the West with formidable political and cultural contestants-and with opportunities to affirm a "superior" Occidental identity. Thus, for the West, to understand Islam has meant...
...Early Christian polemicists against Islam used the Prophet's human person as their butt, accusing him of whoring, sedition, charlatanry. As writing about Islam and the Orient burgeoned-60,000 books between 1800 and 1950-European powers occupied large swatches of "Islamic" territory, arguing that since Orientals knew nothing about democracy and were essentially passive, it was the "civilizing mission" of the Occident, expressed in the strict programs of despotic modernization, to finally transform the Orient into a nice replica of the West. Even Marx seems to have believed this...
...government that was "born to die," as newspapers called it. In January an Andreotti-led government that had ruled Italy since last spring collapsed when the Communists withdrew their support. At Pertini's behest, Andreotti then put together a jerry-built minority government consisting of his own Christian Democrats, the Republicans and the Social Democrats. The Premier's scenario was to present this weakling coalition to the senate, get a no-confidence vote that would lead to the dissolution of parliament and then to preside over elections. Italian politics being what they are, the elaborate strategy almost backfired...
...boom. In 1978 Italy piled up an impressive $6.4 billion balance of payments surplus and increased exports by 10%. Says an aide to the Premier: "In the last three years, we put through more constructive legislation than all the governments of the past 15 years put together." The Christian Democrats hope to regain the support of disillusioned centrists who tend to blame the Communists for the crimes of Italy's radical terrorists. They also are counting on the protest votes of people who have lived in cities and districts controlled by the Communists for the past three or four...