Word: prophet
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...Armstrong, "Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet" Bernard Lewis, "The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years...
...Ignorance about the Middle East runs even deeper, and has a long history. Armstrong, in "Muhammad", notes that during the time of the First Crusades, many Westerners believed that Muslims were idol-worshippers (actually, the Prophet tore down the idols in Mecca). And Dante, in "The Divine Comedy," placed Muhammad in the Eighth Circle of Hell with the schismatics (even pagans such as Plato and Aristotle got relatively better treatment, with placement in the more scenic Limbo). Much more recently, the novelist Fay Weldon ("Affliction") wrote this about Islam: "The Koran is food for no-thought...
...Prophet Muhammad was a feminist. The doctrine he laid out as the revealed word of God considerably improved the status of women in 7th century Arabia. In local pagan society, it was the custom to bury alive unwanted female newborns; Islam prohibited the practice. Women had been treated as possessions of their husbands; Islamic law made the education of girls a sacred duty and gave women the right to own and inherit property. Muhammad even decreed that sexual satisfaction was a woman's entitlement. He was a liberal at home as well as in the pulpit. The Prophet darned...
...Then we got on to the subject of miracles. Taliban legend has it that the Prophet Mohammed came to Mullah Omar in a 1994 dream and told this simple, half-blind village cleric to rid Afghanistan of the warlords, who were nothing but thieves and debauched murders. In the early days, Afghans thought that angels rode into battle with the Taliban, hovering above their tanks and pick-up trucks. I ask if Mullah Omar has performed any miracles lately. "Sure," says Amanullah, "he's still alive, isn't he? Isn't that miracle enough, when the mightiest nation on earth...
...rubble after truck bomb exploded outside his house.) Maybe now, when his Islamic caliphate is collapsing around him, and his big buddy, Osama bin Laden, has crawled deep underground, Mullah Omar doesn't trust anyone within his ranks whose zealotry might be tempered by common sense. "The Prophet and his Followers had to retreat sometimes, but the Almighty Allah will help us prevail against America. We will fight until we are killed," says Agha, whose English is soft yet fierce...