The American Spectator

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p> PEACE IN OUR TIMES br> Re: George Neumayr's Pledge Week Islam : /p> p>At long last -- a bit of fresh air. Well done to George Neumayr and his willingness to write the truth. br> -- Paul Liptz /p>

Yes, well, it must be said that PBS has on more than one occasion propagated a world view that is somewhat less than wholesomely realistic. Fine article.

An excellent source of wisdom about Islam, and the Arab culture which it has shaped and in which it is ineluctably imbedded, may be found in the culture of Oriental Jewry. The Jews, after all, knew the Arabs long before the Arabs knew Mohammed. Jewish communities in what are now Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen predate the arrival of the conquering Islamic armies by nearly 1,000 years, and persisted until uprooted in the late 1940's by Islamist pogroms driven by the founding struggles of the State of Israel.

These Oriental Jews' collective memory of the Arab/ Islamic world might be summarized thus: nice clothes, great entertainment, good produce, swell laid-back lifestyle except that every so often they go nuts and come, as an ecstatic mob, to cut your throat, rape your wife and daughters and burn your house and shop. Keep your bags packed, your sword sharp and your powder dry.

One might politely suggest to the current crop of Islamic scholars such as Secretary Powell, Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Blair and George W. that maybe, just maybe, they ought to make all possible inquiries of the folks who have accumulated 25 centuries of hands-on experience in those precincts which are now so vexing.

p>Religion of peace ? Oh, dear, how embarrassing it is when smart people say such silly things.

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