What Went Wrong With Bernard Lewis?

American Thinker ^ | March 17, 2013 | Andrew G. Bostom

[neverdem]

I spent an hour with my colleague, the prolific author Robert Spencer, discussing Bernard Lewis, nonagenarian doyen of Islamic Studies. The entire interview, conducted as a segment for Robert's outstanding weekly series of Jihad Watch programs on the Aramaic Broadcasting Network, is embedded at the bottom of this posting. Please read the summary assessment of my concerns before watching the interview. A more detailed analysis of Lewis's analytic pitfalls can be read here.

Accrued over a distinguished career of more than six decades of serious scholarship, Bernard Lewis clearly possesses an enormous fund of knowledge regarding certain aspects of classical Islamic civilization, as well as valuable insights on the early evolution of modern Turkey from the dismantled Ottoman Empire. A gifted linguist, non-fiction prose writer, and teacher, Lewis shares his understanding of Muslim societies in both written and oral presentations, with singular economy, eloquence, and wit. Now 96 years old and still active, these are extraordinary attributes for which Lewis richly deserves the accolades lavished upon him.

I began expressing my concerns with the less salutary aspects of Lewis' scholarship in a lengthy review-essay (for Frontpage) on Bat Ye'or's seminal book Eurabia -- The Euro-Arab Axis, published December 31, 2004. Over the intervening years -- in the wake of profound U.S. policy failures vis a vis Islamdom at that time, and subsequently, till now -- this disquietude has increased considerably. As I demonstrate in my recent book, Sharia Versus Freedom, Lewis's legacy of intellectual and moral confusion has greatly hindered the ability of sincere American policymakers to think clearly about Islam's living imperial legacy, driven by unreformed and unrepentant mainstream Islamic doctrine. Ongoing highly selective and celebratory presentations of Lewis's understandings -- (see this for example) -- are pathognomonic of the dangerous influence Lewis continues to wield over his uncritical...

[Borges]

He turns 99 today.

[Tijeras_Slim]

People want certainty or power... Islam provides both on the cheap.

[livius]

It was said that there were two systems that claimed universal truth: Christianity and Islam (which is a late heresy that picked up both Jewish and Christian truth claims).

I’m not including Jews in the universal truth claim, because while the truths revealed to the Jews were indeed universally applicable, Jews knew only that they were applicable only to the Jewish people - and of course, one of the things that Jesus revealed and the Apostles followed up on was that the essence of Jewish faith and law were applicable to everybody, and were made so by the Atonement of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The problem now is that Christians have abandoned the claim to truth. Actually, they abandoned it about 50 years ago, at Vatican II. Some liberal Protestant groups had abandoned it before then (and remember, Luther regarded himself as the “new Mohammed”), but most were kind of hanging in there until VII.

There’s always been a fight back against this, and now that we have a Pope who seems to be on the wrong side, the good guys are coming out...because, in the immortal words of Kris Kristofferson via Janis Joplin, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” So stay tuned.

[Borges]

Bernard Lewis turns 100 today.