Leon's No News Bulletin 81 Mon 7th July 2008

Shalom everyone,

Friday's always my busiest day even though usually I don't work on Fridays; I'm up at 5 to look at my mail and think about something to write, then at the market by 7 to wait in the car, while Ettie shops, double parked until I find a spot, reading Moshe Halbertal on Nahmanides and smoking my latest discovery, a Trinidad cigar, slightly damaged but good all the same.

I try to go to Kiron to play with Ophir every Friday. Last Friday I was playing with him in the middle of a very hot day. He says "oo" and I say "ah". He tries to get me to say "ah" by opening my mouth. He has these tiny sharp nails and his fingers scratch my mouth. So I don't let him do it. We have to find another game to play. I found the ball and showed Ophir how to kick it but he insisted on throwing it and I told him he was great so he does it again. Ophir loves to hear a compliment. Everything he does elicits a compliment excepting when he deliberately falls off the couch.

Usually I'm back in Jerusalem by 3 o'clock after riding on the 55 bus to the Aluf Sadeh terminal then the bus from Bnei Brak to Jerusalem, then the 28 to French Hill, a little walk up and down the hill and I'm home.

After my disappointment a few weeks ago at missing Dido and Aenias, I was determined not to miss Eugene Onedin. I found a seat and began to be uplifted by Tchaikovsky's magnificent music.

In this opera my usual feeling of elation was doused by moments of agonizing impatience at Onedin's unrequited love for Olga. Thank goodness for Tchaikovsky's magnificent Polonaise, which put me back in a good mood. Onedin's reputation of being a good for nothing gambler obviously made him unacceptable to the high minded Olga. But I can't shrug off the feeling that he was, after all, more moral than her.

While he was constantly loyal in his love for her and never stopped declaring it she remained married to Lansky, a man she didn't love, until Onedin shot him in a duel. Then she married another man she didn't love and rejected Onedin's approaches even though she loved him. She was definitely an example of how cultural mores put brakes on unacceptable behavior brought on by emotional fervor.

I finally spent a half day listening to lectures about what various Arab thinkers had to say about the decline of the West. You'll all be somewhat shocked to hear that they unanimously predict the total collapse of Western civilization and a revival of the domination of Moslem culture over Western.

I would have like to hear some of the speakers say something about the reason why Western Culture is so vulnerable.

I think that the type of culture which has developed in the West is by nature an open culture. This for me is real culture. Real culture and civilization, by its nature can't be closed. If that happened it would cease to be culture. This is what Moslem takeover of Western Culture means, but it can't be otherwise. The Moslem thinkers realize this and so forecast its downfall.

The only thing that philosophers in the West can do is to point out the characteristics of Moslem civilization without being emotional about its dangers. We are lacking a clear explanation of the closed nature of Moslem civilization and an analysis of what makes it like that and a consideration of pros and cons of such a closed civilization.

Moslem civilization is so closed and restrictive to absorbing any aspects of a culture outside itself that it sees criticism as enmity. Any cultural phenomenon from outside Islam is seen as a threat whether it's positive or negative. Simply being from outside Islam makes it unacceptable.

This attitude is demonstrated in many ways. For example the way Moslem women cover themselves up. It's as if they're trying to keep out foreign influences. Islam has been so successful in staying as it was since the days of Mohammed that Mohammed would feel quite at home in a modern Moslem environment.

Mecca, the religious center of Islam is totally closed to outsiders. Outsiders aren't allowed to enter the shrine in Jerusalem.

A Moslem who finds himself in a modern western environment, completely surrounded by Western Culture is faced with an impossible task of keeping out the influences that surround him. He's like a fish out of water; to survive he's either got to go back into the water or he's got to change the air into water.

Wearing ancient, desert society clothes in a modern western society is a sign that the Moslem wants to go back to living in the desert and living in the days of Mohammed.

If he can't do that he'll turn the whole world into desert and push it back to those times.  

When Moslems talk about the destruction of the West they mean to send everybody back to the "good old days" of Mohammad. The difference between a modern western person and a Moslem is that the Modern western person doesn't think that those days were better or that it's better to live in a desert or cave, or wherever he came from, on the contrary he thinks that today is better and the world is moving forward. In Islam moving forward is bad.

Wishing you a great no news day

Yours truly

Leon Gork