Word: islamic
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Much of the riddle of Islam - what it is, what makes it strong, what makes it weak - is derived from the personality and experience of its founder...
Twelve of the world's nations have Moslem majorities. These lands may be the area of decision in the struggle between the West and Communism. If either of the great forces wins Islam as ally, the scale of power is tipped. To the West, opportunity beckons from one side of Islam - its God, its acceptance of the moral code, its protection of private property. To the Kremlin, opportunity beckons from another side of Islam - its poverty and corruption, its long acceptance of tyranny, its ingrained hatred of Christendom...
...rejected Mohammed. But he persisted even after he gradually came to realize that his spiritual kingdom did not have a of of spreading unless it also achieved a kingdom of this world. The political crisis of Christianity had not come until the 4th Century with the conversion of Constantine; Islam's political crisis, confronting Mohammed at the start of his mission, colored all his teaching and all the subsequent his tory of Islam. Separation of God and Caesar, church and state, would always be alien and painful to Islam. Islam would always be as much a way of organizing...
Monotheism and the Last Judgment are the only important Mohammedan doctrines. Beyond these, the theology of Islam is as bare of major furniture as the inside of a mosque. Mosques are often decorated with intricately patterned and endlessly repeated geometrical designs. Similarly, Moslem teaching runs on about the hours and posture for prayers, when and how to perform ablutions and other helpful hints on morals, ritual and etiquette...
...found that he did not have enough followers to work the land. He made no effort to force the conversion of the Christians or to interfere in their communal government. He merely exacted a tribute from them. This policy of toleration became one of the main keys to Islam's astounding success...