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"Their heavens are rather different but their hells are much the same."
—Bernard Lewis
 Professor emeritus Bernard Lewis discusses the similarities and differences between "Islamdom" and Christendom. Lewis is author of What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. He explains that the conflict between Middle Eastern and Western civilizations is possible in part because they understand each other when they argue; they are, after all, both religiously defined civilizations. Lewis traces their differences back to the different historical circumstances in which each was formed. He describes those circumstances and how they influenced each society. |
What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response (Oxford, 2001) |
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Bernard Lewis has written about the history of the Middle East and the West for several popular publications. Listed below is a sampling of his works:
--"The Roots of Muslim Rage" appeared in the September 1990 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. In this article Lewis entertains a number of possible rationales for Islam's hatred of the principles and values of Western civilization but claims that the key to understanding the hatred is the division classic Islam makes between the House of Islam (the areas of the world where Muslim law and faith prevail) and the House of Unbelief (the rest of the world). The House of Islam must—according to classic Islam—assume the House of Unbelief before the latter destroys the way of life of the former.
-- "What Went Wrong?" was published in the January 2002 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. Here Lewis describes Middle Eastern and Western claims that try to explain the imbalance of power between Islam and the Western World. He suggests that the Islamic world—which was once a mighty economic, literary, and scientific enterprise—will only begin to regain its position of influence when it abandons its grievances, settles its internal disputes, and focuses its "talents, energies, and resources in a common creative endeavor."
--The New York Review of Books provides access to several articles, responses to articles, and reviews by Lewis. The works featured were published between 1982 and 2002, and include "In the Finger Zone," "Tolerance Among the Muslims, Christians, & Jews: An Exchange," and "The Vanished Library."
 --What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response was published by Oxford University Press in 2001. Click here for a brief summary.
--"The West and the Middle East (history of relations)" appeared in the January 1997 issue of Foreign Affairs. In this piece Lewis uses the British sailing industry to compare and contrast the Middle East and the West just before the rise of modernity. He sketches the three attitudes that characterize the different Middle Eastern responses to the West's modernization and influence, and he reveals an Islamic belief that is incompatible with Western philosophies of secularism. |
Islam
Western Civilization
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