Bernard Lewis > Quotes

“Secularism in the Christian world was an attempt to resolve the long and destructive struggle of church and state. Separation, adopted in the American and French Revolutions and elsewhere after that, was designed to prevent two things: the use of religion by the state to reinforce and extend its authority; and the use of the state power by the clergy to impose their doctrines and rules on others. This is a problem long seen as purely Christian, not relevant to Muslims or for that matter to Jews, for whom a similar problem has arisen in Israel. Looking at the contemporary Middle East, both Muslim and Jewish, one must ask whether this is still true -- or whether Muslims and Jews may perhaps have caught a Christian disease and might therefore consider a Christian remedy.”
― Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East

“In 1940, we knew who we were, we knew who the enemy was, we knew the dangers and the issues," he told me when I pressed him for a reading of the struggle against Islamic radicalism. "In our island, we knew we would prevail, that the Americans would be drawn into the fight. It is different today. We don't know who we are, we don't know the issues, and we still do not understand the nature of the enemy.”
― Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East

“America is harmless as an enemy but treacherous as a friend.”
― Bernard Lewis, United States and the Middle East

“As Osama bin Laden puts it: "In this final phase of the ongoing struggle, the world of the infidels was divided between two superpowers--the United States and the Soviet Union. Now we have defeated and destroyed the more difficult and the more dangerous of the two. Dealing with the pampered and effeminate Americans will be easy.”
― Bernard Lewis, Islam and the West

“To a Western observer, schooled in the theory and practice of Western freedom, it is precisely the lack of freedom—freedom of the mind from constraint and indoctrination, to question and inquire and speak; freedom of the economy from corrupt and pervasive mismanagement; freedom of women from male oppression; freedom of citizens from tyranny—that underlies so many of the troubles of the Muslim world. But the road to democracy, as the Western experience amply demonstrates, is long and hard, full of pitfalls and obstacles." Page 115”
― Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East

“The difference between Middle Eastern and Western economic approaches can be seen even in their distinctive forms of corruption, from which neither society is exempt. In the West, one makes money in the market, and uses it to buy or influence power. In the East, one seizes power, and uses it to make money.”
― Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East

“Those who are unwilling to confront the past will be unable to understand the present and unfit to face the future.”
― Bernard Lewis, Notes on a Century: Reflections of A Middle East Historian

“Different groups in the [Middle East] drew two lessons from [return of the shah in Iran] - one, that Americans were willing to use both force and intrigue to install or restore their puppet rulers in Middle Eastern countries; the other, that they were not reliable patrons when these puppets were seriously attacked by their own people, and would simply abandon them. The one evoked hatred, the other contempt - a dangerous combination.

Clearly, something deeper is involved than these specific grievances, numerous and important as they may be, something deeper which turns every disagreement into a problem and makes every problem insoluble. What we confront now is not just a complaint about one or another American policy but rather a rejection and condemnation, at once angry and contemptuous, of all that America is seen to represent in the modern world. (76)”
― Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror

“It is often said that Islam is an egalitarian religion. There is much truth in this assertion. If we compare Islam at the time of its advent with the societies that surrounded it—the stratified feudalism of Iran and the caste system of India to the east, the privileged aristocracies of both Byzantine and Latin Europe to the west—the Islamic dispensation does indeed bring a message of equality. Not only does Islam not endorse such systems of social differentiation; it explicitly and resolutely rejects them. The actions and utterances of the Prophet, the honored precedents of the early rulers of Islam as preserved by tradition, are overwhelmingly against privilege by descent, by birth, by status, by wealth, or even by race, and insist that rank and honor are determined only by piety and merit in Islam.”
― Bernard Lewis

“The changed relationship may be seen in a simple example, that traditional Middle-Eastern indulgence, a cup of coffee. Coffee originally came from Ethiopia. It was brought up both shores of the Red Sea, through Arabia and Egypt, to Syria and to Turkey, and then exported to Europe. Sugar came from Persia and India. For a long time, both coffee and sugar were imports to Europe, either through or from the Middle East. But then the colonial powers found that they could grow coffee and sugar more abundantly and more cheaply in their new colonies. They did this so thoroughly and successfully that they began to export coffee and sugar to the Ottoman lands. By the end of the eighteenth century, if a Turk or Arab took the traditional indulgence, a cup of sweetened coffee, in all probability the coffee came from Dutch Java or Spanish America, the sugar from the British or French West Indies; only the hot water was local. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, even that ceased to be true, as European concessionary companies took over the water supply and gas supply in Middle Eastern cities.”
― Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East

“The medieval islamic world offered vastly more freedom than any of its predecessors, its contemporaries and most of its successors”
― Bernard Lewis

“(Note: The following was written in 2003, before the full implication of US military commitment in Afghanistan and Iraq could be fully appreciated. The passage also predates US drone attacks against targets in Pakistan and Yemen - to say nothing of Israeli affairs since 2003. It is unknown if and how the author's comments would change if he were writing the same today.)

The value of Israel to the United States as a strategic asset has been much disputed. There have been some in the United States who view Israel as a major strategic ally in the region and the one sure bastion against both external and regional enemies. Others have argued that Israel, far from being a strategic asset, has been a strategic liability, by embittering U.S. relations with the Arab world and causing the failure of U.S. policies in the region.

But if one compares the record of American policy in the Middle East with that of other regions, one is struck not by its failure but by its success. There is, after all, no Vietnam in the Middle East, no Cuba or Nicaragua or El Salvador, not even an Angola. On the contrary, throughout the successive crises that have shaken the region, there has always been an imposing political, economic, and cultural American presence, usually in several countries - and this, until the Gulf War of 1991, without the need for any significant military intervention. And even then, their presence was needed to rescue the victims of an inter-Arab aggression, unrelated to either Israelis or Palestinians. (99)”
― Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror

“In recent years, there have been some changes of perception and, consequently, of tactics among Muslims. Some of them still see the West in general and its present leader the United States in particular as the ancient and irreconcilable enemy of Islam, the one serious obstacle to the restoration of God’s faith and law at home and their ultimate universal triumph. For these there is no way but war to the death, in fulfillment of what they see as the commandments of their faith. There are others who, while remaining committed Muslims and well aware of the flaws of modern Western society, nevertheless also see its merits—its inquiring spirit, which produced modern science and technology; its concern for freedom, which created modern democratic government. These, while retaining their own beliefs and their own culture, seek to join us in reaching toward a freer and better world. There are some again who, while seeing the West as their ultimate enemy and as the source of all evil, are nevertheless aware of its power, and seek some temporary accommodation in order better to prepare for the final struggle. We would be wise not to confuse the second and the third.”
― Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror

“At the moment, the general perception ... is that the United States is an unreliable friend and a harmless enemy.”
― Bernard Lewis

“Geleceği görebilmek için tarih bilmek çok önemli. Birey için hafıza neyse bir ulus için de tarih odur. Tarihini çarpıtan bir toplum nörotik bir kişi, tarihini bilmeyen bir toplum ise hafızasını kaybetmiş insan gibidir.”
― Bernard Lewis

“I think I can say quite clearly and explicitly that the various types of actions which we call terrorism are not only not encouraged, they are explicitly forbidden by Sharia Law .. It is true that waging war is a religious obligation, but precisely because it is a religious obligation , it is regulated by religious law .. even medieval Sharia texts go into astonishing detail into what is permitted and what is not permitted .. The Sharia requires that proper warning be given before beginning hostilities .. it has elaborate regulations regarding the treatment of civilians, the women and the children and the aged .. it discusses how prisoners should be treated .. what weapons should be used .. they discuss and for the most part reject the use of chemical weapons.”
― Bernard Lewis

“Qərbdəki korrupsiya Yaxın Şərqdəkindən kəskin şəkildə fərqlənir. Məsələn, Qərb ölkələrində bir nəfər ticarətlə məşğul olur və çoxlu pul qazanır. Sonra isə zəngin olan bu şəxs siyasətə atılır və malik olduğu kapital ilə öz mövqeyini gücləndirir, hakimiyyət pillələrində irəliləyir. Şərqdə isə tam tərsinədir: pul qazanmaq üçün birinci siyasətə atılır, hakimiyyətə gəlir və bundan sonra varlanır. Doğrudur, əxlaq nöqteyi nəzərindən bu iki korrupsiya arasında heç bir fərq yoxdur. Amma iqtisadiyyata və siyasətə təsir baxımından onlar bir-birindən kəskin şəkildə fərqlənir.”
― Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East

“Not being interested in other cultures is the normal state of mankind.”
― Bernard Lewis (Author), The Muslim Discovery of Europe

“Classical Islamic civilization had long passed its prime when the Mongols arrived on the scene in the thirteenth century, and was already in an advance state of what most historians would call decline.”
― Bernard Lewis (Author)

“Terrorism requires only a few. Obviously, the West must defend itself by whatever means will be effective. But in devising means to fight the terrorists, it would surely be useful to understand the forces that drive them.”
― Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror

“A clear difference was made between throwing oneself to certain death at the hands of an overwhelmingly strong enemy, and dying by one’s own hand. The first, if conducted in a properly authorized holy war, was a passport to heaven; the second to damnation.”
― Bernard Lewis, The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam

“Uncertainty may be beneficial in that it invites further research and further thought. But uncertainty disguised as certainty is dangerous.”
― Bernard Lewis, Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian

“Until most christian countries ceased to be devout, the general attitude on religion was very intolerant. It was intolerant of other religions .. When the Muslim ruled Spain, Christians, Muslims and Jews lived side by side in reasonable harmony; when the Christians reconquered Spain, first the Jews then the Muslims were expelled.”
― Bernard Lewis

“On present demographic trends, by the end of the twenty’s-first century at the latest, Europe will be Muslim. - Bernard Lewis”
― Bernard Lewis

“The medieval European, who shared the fundamental assumptions of his Muslim contemporary, would have agreed with him in ascribing religious movements to religious causes, and would have sought no further for an explanation. But when Europeans ceased to accord first place to religion in their thoughts, sentiments, interests, and loyalties, they also ceased to admit that other men, in other times and places, could have done so. To a rationalistic and materialistic generation, it was inconceivable that such great debates and mighty conflicts could have involved no more than ‘merely’ religious issues. And so historians, once they had passed the stage of amused contempt, devised a series of explanations, setting forth for what they described as the ‘real’ or 'ultimate’ significance 'underlying’ religious movements and differences. The clashes and squabbles of the early churches, the great Schism, the Reformation, all were reinterpreted in terms of motives and interests reasonable by the standards of the day—and for religious movements of Islam too explanations were found that tallied with the outlook and interests of the finders.”
― Bernard Lewis, Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East

“Western technology made slavery unnecessary; Western ideas made it intolerable.”
― Bernard Lewis, Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims & Jews in the Age of Discovery

“wholly given up to villainy and debauchery, and ride the steed of perfidy and presumption, and dive into the sea of error and impiety, and are united under the banner of Satan.”
― Bernard Lewis, The Middle East

“[...] the governor of the Hijaz sent an order to the district governor of Mecca prohibiting the trade in slaves. The district governor was instructed to read the order aloud at the Shari a court of Mecca in the presence of the ulema and the sharifs. This took place on October 30, 1855 [...]

This was the moment for which the sharif had been waiting. On his instructions, Shaykh Jamal issued a fatwa denouncing the ban on the slave trade as contrary to the holy law of Islam. Because of this anti-Islamic act, he said, together with such other anti-Islamic actions as allowing women to initiate divorce proceedings and to move around unveiled, the [Ottomon] Turks had become apostates and heathens. It was lawful to kill them without incurring criminal penalties or bloodwit, and to enslave their children.

"The Turks have become renegades. It is obligatory to make war against them and against those who follow them. Those who are with us are for heaven and those who are with them are for hell. Their blood is lawful and their goods are licit.”
― Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry

“Those who are in power control to a very large extent the presentation of the past, and seek to make sure that it is presented in such a way as to buttress and legitimize their own authority, and to affirm the rights and merits of the group which they lead.’ This continuing thread can be traced from ancient inscriptions on rock faces through medieval annals, modern schoolbooks and textbooks, and the official mythology which passes as history in the Soviet Union.”
― Bernard Lewis, History: Remembered, Recovered, Invented

“In medieval times most singers, dancers, and musical performers were, at least in origin, slaves.”
― Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry