Self-delusion and confusion
Reader comment on item: [Hamid Dabashi:] Columbia University's Hysterical Professor

Submitted by Borzooyeh Zendig (Australia), Sep 25, 2007 at 01:52

...In any situation where power is so unevenly distributed between the opponents, the powerful wields its might with no chance of testing it for its efficiency and long-term viability, since there is no prompt sanction to discipline it. In the meantime resentments and grievances accumulate on the side of the weak, and the wound festers until it becomes monstrously hideous.

This is, unfortunately, where we are with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. In itself, this has nothing to do with the ideology or the religion that each side professes. So let's not confuse categroies. As for the religions involved, namely Judaism and Islam, I don't think, as far as we are talking about their so-called sacred texts, either concedes any to the other when it comes to self-righteous and murderous cruelty.

Jews should not be offended by this comment. No other people, as far as I can tell, has made as much contribution to the spiritual life of humanity as they have. If one were to believe that they were good Moslems or good Jews if they carried out the precepts of their sacred texts, then the world would be bathing in blood. THIS is the problem. The 'moral' doctrine contained in these texts, were it to be lived in the 21st century - THIS is the problem.

People who say Islam is a religion of compassion and tolerance are self-delusional. University professors need not give their (redundant) support to their society's self-delusions. I like Saul Bellow's fine dictum which goes something like: when the need for illusion is deep, so much intelligence is invested in ignorance.

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