I get worked up. You get worked up. I have no problem with that. I appreciate your vantage point here. I leaned a lot from you. I’m glad to learn more about the region.
Keep sending notes.
My worry is that the West underestimates Islam
Philosophy changes people -- pre-Christianity in Europe was a different way of thinking. I love history and one day want to write a book (perhaps a mystery book) about everyday life in Sumeria -- it would be something like the Caedwael series, you know an ordinary detective story, only it happens in a different time.
why? Because I think ancient Sumerian thinking must have been so incredibly different from ours -- think of it, generations (5,6, more) living in the same house for centuries, while around them there is desert, sea and very few people (population of the world circa 4000 BC would have been 10 million or less (since most were hunter-gatherers which gives a lower population capacity), with Indo-Europeans still a tiny tribe between the Caspian and Black Seas
But, I digress -- I mean, the people would think differently from us and even differently from a medieval person -- there would be no "change" -- "change is not good". There is continuity
Even today, the Christian and Islamic worlds think of time as an arrow while Hindu and Buddhist philosophy sees time as a circle
Islam had a chance in the 8th century to change with the Mu`tazila thought, but that was pushed out. Now the most radical Moslems believe that the world is recreated every minute by Allah, every minute, every second. Even the lesser radicalized don't see Allah playing by the rules of nature. This means that there is no IF-THEN idea in Islam, but just submit. It is a completely different way of thinking. We can't fathom it
Similarly about the separation of Church and State -- we see it now, even the most conservative but in Islam today and in the Middle ages, there was no such separation.
The Idea that the Saudi leadership pays/distributes huge revenues to the Imams for their support (religious control of the people) and the Imams distribute it further, so very likely some in both the leaderships of each could easily arrange terrorist attacks as 9/11 without being directly associated with their perspective leaders. Like Rogue individuals with lots of money. ...or in fact perfectly aligned with as well.
At any rate the application of their “beliefs” run the same for both but they function outwardly differently in what they “do”....so they really hold each other up. One with Royal Empire Agendas to maintain and the other Religious Royalty before the people and control of the people so they don't turn on the House of Saud.......rather like a shared Empire acting as one.
Cronos I understand better but even so it just seems from your posts the Imams have more control....since they could turn the people against the Sauds using “religious reasons for doing so”.... But would they do so? What reason would they have?