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page 1 page 2 page 3 islam vs islamism page 4 page 5 islam vs islamism the dilemma of the muslim world peter r demant foreword by asghar ali engineer page 6 library of congress cataloging-in-publication data demant peter r 1951 islam vs islamism the dilemma of the muslim world peter r demant foreword by asghar ali engineer p cm includes bibliographical references and index isbn 0275990788 alk paper 1 islam21st century 2 islamic renewalislamic countries 3 islamic fundamentalismislamic countries 4 islam and politicsislamic countries 5 islamic countriespolitics and government i title ii title islam versus islamism bp161.3.d46 2006 297.2 7209dc22 2006019253 6 religious awakeningislam british library cataloguing in publication data is available copyright 2006 by peter r demant all rights reserved no portion of this book may be reproduced by any process or technique without the express written consent of the publisher library of congress catalog card number 2006019253 isbn 0275990788 first published in 2006

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praeger publishers 88 post road west westport ct 06881 an imprint of greenwood publishing group inc www.praeger.com printed in the united states of america the paper used in this book complies with the permanent paper standard issued by the national information standards organization z39.481984 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 page 7 for arnold demant in loving memory of katja komkommer page 8 page 9 contents list of figures foreword by asghar ali engineer acknowledgments note on spelling introduction key dates part i 1 yesterday 3 xi xiii xvii xix xxi xxvii 2 3 4 islam in time islam origins and historical trajectory 3 stage 1 classical islam 9 stage 2 the arab middle ages 15 stage 3 the era of the muslim gunpowder empires 16 the middle east confronts the west 20 stage 4 the middle east under western influence 20 islam in space islams expansion outside the middle east muslim india 44 southeast asia 54 sub-saharan africa 58 islam among others the muslim diasporas russia 61 china 62 europe 64 america 71 the other in islam minorities and women slaves 77 non-muslims 78 women 79 43 61 77 page 10 viii contents

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part ii 5 6 today 89 7 8 9 islam and postmodernity what is fundamentalism 89 the three waves of islamism 91 19671981 the first islamist wave qutbs egypt and the sunni jihad mawdudis influence 98 sayyid qutbs ideology 100 egypt between jihadist terror and islamizing accommodation the first wave of jihad in the sunni world 105 the 1980s the second islamist wave shiite interlude who are the shiites 109 persia between shiism and modernization 112 the last shah forced modernization against popular shiite opposition 114 the islamic revolution 116 the islamic republic 117 international impact 119 post-thermidorean iran 120 hizbullah 123 iraqs shiites 125 19912001 the third islamist wave the seven marks of current islamism the seven marks 129 the islamization of politics 130 islamization of the social sphere 137 islamization of culture the discursive field 139 islamisms international integration 140 proliferation of jihad fronts islams frontiers outside the arab core 141 islamist expansion in the diasporas of the muslim west international war osama bin ladens al-qaeda 160 2003 the war against terror reaches iraq 163 coda modernist islamic thinkers 173 what do the islamists want islamism as ideology 180 islamism as a movement 181 islamism as tribalism 182 islamism as answer to urban generational and class crises 184 islamist strategies between charismatic leadership and institutionalization 184 between withdrawl and activism 186 half-modernity using technology but rejecting its reason results 187 97 102 109 127 159 177 187 page 11 contents 10 causes of islamism modernitys myth 191 islamism reaction against modernity 193 the failure of modernizing development how islamism was born 194 how islamism grows social and psychological factors ix 191 194

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is islam more susceptible to fundamentalism part iii 11 tomorrow 195 12 islam and the west clash of civilizations or transcultural dialogue internalists and externalists 203 islam and violence 209 islam and the west 211 the future of islam five dilemmas the critique of sources 221 homogeneity or heterogeneity 222 modernity rationalism and science 222 democracy 224 the challenge from western islam 225 an islamist superpower 226 islamist revolution in a western state 227 203 221 concluding remarks notes glossary bibliography index page 12 page 13 figures 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 5.1 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 divisions of islam the middle east arabization islamization and minorities the ottoman empire decline and the oriental question through 1917 world war i and the postwar settlement the genealogy of islamism political regimes in the middle east today islamism in the contemporary world global panorama islamism in the contemporary world the arc of crisis west islamism in the contemporary world the arc of crisis east 229 231 239 245 253 10 13 21 27 9293 130 165 166 167 page 14 page 15 foreword peter demant has written a very perceptive book on islam and the problems faced by islamic countries particularly those of west asia newspapers and journals today are full of hastily written

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articles displaying their writers prejudices and plenty of books are published with an agenda the concept of an inevitable clash of civilizations has been widely discussed in many western forums and has been lapped up as a new gospel in the western press meanwhile many well-researched books that cast doubt on such impending doom written with objectivity by scholars of repute and integrity go without mention in newspapers of wide readership in such circumstances any book written with objectivity and perceptiveness is received with great relief peter demant is firmly grounded in his subject and has done justice to it he has analyzed events with honesty and sensitivity without being swept off his feet by the events of 9/11 and post-9/11 as most western scholars have been as demant rightly points out islam can be shown to be peaceful or to be violent just like any other religion scriptural pronouncements must be situated in historical context all scripture if it is revealed in this world is revealed in history but also transcends any given historical era it is this transcendence that makes it relevant for the present as well as the future often however the followers themselves confuse history and transcendence it is also true that many muslims find great relief in demonizing the westeverything western is evil in their eyes by thus seeing the world they transfer their own responsibility to the west and absolve page 16 xiv foreword themselvesas if if the west ceased to exist the muslim world would be transformed into paradise such a self-congratulatory approach besides being misleading would prove self-destructive what is needed is honest reflection and critical analysis of the situation muslim intellectuals confront an onerous task some of the questions before them are quite fundamental why is there a lack of pluralist democracy in the islamic world today what props up corrupt monarchies and dictators even conceding that america has in some cases shored up these monarchs and dictators to serve its own purposesall framed in the rhetoric of freedom and democracyare muslims absolved of all responsibility muslim intellectuals should also critically reflect on the role played by the iranian masses in peacefully overthrowing their powerful monarch although the iranian revolution deposed a powerful and corrupt shah supported to the hilt by the u.s government it failed to usher in a truly pluralist and secular democracy as demant rightly points out the islamic world occupies perhaps the lowest rung of the human development indexbut why why the dismal position despite the islamic rhetoric can mere islamic rhetoric answer the wests rhetoric of democracy and freedom today both sound utterly hollow the dismal economic situation of the muslim world contributes to the proliferation of violence in it yet poverty alone does not explain

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this violenceit can also flare up in an oil-rich country like saudi arabia due to its long-standing traditions of intolerance and lack of intellectual freedom although change is occurring in saudi arabia it is far from adequate to meet the challenges of modern times genuine intellectual freedom indeed is a sine qua non precondition for ushering in a pluralist democracy but the islamic world is far behind in this area and no amount of islamic rhetoric can ever substitute for authentic freedom of thought the events of 9/11 may prove to be a blessing in disguise they have set muslims thinking seriously and may have initiated a degree of critical awareness among them 9/11 has for instance been an eyeopener for the ruling elite as well as for the common people of saudi arabia who have woken up to the implications of utter religious intolerance and have begun to seriously reconsider their school and college syllabi this may be the beginning of a long road but a lot remains to be done thus although the position of women in islam fails to measure up to quranic standards and patriarchal values continue to reign supreme in the name of quran and sharia women now demanding changes in their status they insist on a more active role in public life kuwaiti women have won the right to vote and run for page 17 xv foreword are public office their saudi sisters have not progressed this far yet but it is just a matter of time on the other hand western scholars should not blame islam and islamic teachings alone for the current social and cultural crisis of the muslim world and for all the ills besetting western-muslim relations thinkers of the west must develop deeper insight into the societal roots of the muslim worlds current problemsspecifically insight into the economic and political malaise of west asia today for this to occur though they must let go of the prejudices imbibed through political propaganda and realize that the mere rhetoric of freedom and democracy is inadequate to engender democratic change the western public should ponder this question is the u.s government truly interested in promoting democratic changes in west asia or just in perpetuating american interests we need more unbiased and objective studies to genuinely understand the problems of the islamic world this book can prove to be an important link in these efforts asghar ali engineer asghar ali engineers motto might be it is not civilizations but barbarians who clash born in salumbar rajasthan in 1939 engineer is a muslim scholar and engineer active in interfaith dialogue and issues of communal harmony in south and southeast asia he holds liberal rational views on islam and promotes a culture of peace the author of numerous books on liberation theology

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and human rights in islam he is a founding member of the asian muslim action network director of the indian institute of islamic studies and head of the center for the study of society and secularism in mumbai india page 18 page 19 acknowledgments writing a book as wide-ranging and ambitious in scope as this demands not only extensive research but even more requires the intellectual and practical input of friends colleagues and tutors the history department of the university of so paulo provided the material conditions and the stimulating environment for this text to take shape conversations with fellow historians and social scientists as well as with my students have found their way into the discussions in this book i thank all of them the bibliography lists those earlier authors to whom i am most indebted but for their especially insightful ideas i would like to mention in particular the fruitful influence of books by fred halliday shireen hunter gilles kepel bernard lewis olivier roy and bassam tibi any mistakes are of course my own responsibility this book is a thorough reworking of my earlier o mundo muulmano so paulo contexto 2004 the encouragement of my publisher jaime pinsky is gratefully acknowledged thanks are also due to hilary claggett senior editor at praeger publishers for helping to reshape the original and for shepherding it to its final form and to jena m gaines for improving the english and the coherence of the text diagrams by gilberto rosenberg colorni and maps by giorgio zoffoli provide visual aids for understanding complex phenomena of the many people who have helped in the gestation of this work i wish in particular to thank my wife eliane if the text is now better and more readable it is due in no small measure to her efforts i dedicate this book to the memory of my mother katja komkommer and to my father arnold demant my parents values and their unceasing support have been the most formative influence that brought me to develop the ideas expounded in this book page 20 page 21 note on spelling islamic terms and proper nouns are often based on arabic prototypes because arabic is the language of the quran and has for believing muslims around the world a status much like latin once had in european christendom i have generally used a simplified

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transliteration of the arabic original maintaining for hamza glottal stop except at the beginning of the word for the guttural sound `ayn and q for the deep throat sound qaf but otherwise omitting the diacritical signs broken plurals and other conventions found in the scholarly literature however complete consistency is not possible where other renderings have gained wide acceptance i have followed them thus nasser not nasir hussein osama al-qaeda and so on page 22 page 23 introduction over the last fifteen years many books have been published about the world of islam and its complex relationship with the west after the terrorist attacks of september 11 2001 this information river has turned into a waterfall however few of these books combine a concise introduction to islam as a religion and civilization with an in-depth discussion of islamic fundamentalism and its threat to the modern world this book written by a westerner for a non-muslim readership offers a general analysis of islamic civilization and it explains how and why significant portions of the islamic world have been radicalizing politicizing their religion and attacking the west humankinds future will depend on our collective success or failure in answering the hard question of coexistence and few differences between the west and the rest of the world confront us with a more urgent challenge than islamism we can avoid samuel huntingtons announced clash of civilizations between islam and the westa war in which all will be victimsif both make the required efforts and concessions the first and indispensable task is to understand the west must understand how islams historical riches are linked to its current angerand how the western world is in a way complicit in islams contemporary crisis understanding the islamic worlds internal dynamics and its interaction with non-islamic peoples and cultures is a first step on the road to more compassionate and effective policies the islamic world encompasses about 1.3 billion peopleone-fifth of all humanityliving along a wide arc stretching from west africa over the middle east and india to indonesia in most countries of this vast region muslims constitute the majority in others page 24 xxii introduction they are important minorities histories nations tongues ways of living together ecology and relations with neighbors vary

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immensely yet all components of this islamic world share a single distinctive factor islam itself contrasts abound not only in the visible ritual and social forms but even in the core beliefs it could not have been otherwise islam emerged nearly 1400 years ago and spread over three continents and countless societies meeting vastly differing conditions let us remove the terminological confusion first islam and islamic refer first of all to the religion and the culture it created muslim refers to the sociological phenomenon the believer or the person who identifies with the culture the word islam also defines the geographical and civilizational areas where islam has become the predominant religion thus although pakistan has a muslim majority it is not necessarily an islamic state islamism and islamist denote the radical religious movement of political islam its popular synonym islamic fundamentalism has also gained acceptance as distinct from islam arab and arabic refer to a people and a language the arab world is located within the wider middle east a region encompassing roughly west asia and north africa the confusion surrounding these terms is historically grounded and has as its origin the totalistic character of islam itself more than a body of beliefs islam permeates social life even economics politics and international relations initially the terms arab and muslim did coincide as most arabs living on the arabian peninsula at the time of islams arrival converted to islam in a second stage however the expansion of this population created a new cultural sphere presently known as the middle east the middle east adopted arabic as its lingua franca and its majority embraced islam as religion at this point islamic world and middle east coincided but islam and arab no longer did because nonarabic-speaking middle eastern peoples such as the persians were converting to islam as well next islam gained followers in other parts of the earth reducing the middle east to one region of the islamic worldalthough it remains ideologically its most important center locus of the revelation and action radius of muhammad the prophet of islam it was from here that islam radiated and it was in its language arabic that the quran koran was written even today the overlap between the definitions is understandable after all arabs live in the middle east and most arabs are muslims however the middle east is also home to non-muslim arabs lebanese maronites and egyptian copts among others non-arab muslims turks kurds iranians etc and even to non-arab non-islamic nations such as israel page 25 introduction xxiii the use of middle east as shorthand for a geographic area harboring 400 million muslims is a questionable one it originated with the colonial administrators of the british empire and it reflects their eurocentric worldview since the term has entered popular parlance however this book will use it the middle east then located at the

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crossroads of multiple historical influences and transected by caravan routes and sea lanes was for centuries the contact point between civilizations to the eastindia china southeast asiaand what was for a long time an insignificant promontory of asia europe eventually the european backwater and its offshoots in america and on other continents the west came to dominate the others geopolitics made the middle east the most complex region of the islamic world in terms of collective identities political problems and ethnic-religious conflicts western intervention has also turned it into a flashpoint of anti-western sentiment in the last decades the especially arab middle east has become the field of action for most islamist thinkers and militants it continues to be a lightning rod for international tensions this book therefore pays particular attention to the middle east as part of the islamic world even though less than one-quarter of the worlds muslims live there religious assimilation with other civilizations runs counter to islam which prescribes the unity of all believers within one single umma community and in theory at least under a single state diversity of experiences has created a very divided islamic world split into four large and geographically and culturally distinct blocks middle eastern indian malay and african in addition there is central asia vast overwhelmingly muslim but sparsely populated together these encompass over 95 percent of all muslims these four blocks are discussed in part i yesterday of this text so are in a separate section smaller muslim minorities present nowadays in all continents this book is more about muslims than about islammore about specific populations their histories and the challenges confronting them than about theology however both the current difficulties and possible solutions are at least partly rooted in religion think for instance of the impassioned debate on the role of religious law the shari`a in public and private life in countries such as egypt iran or turkey or of terrorist movements trying to destabilize regimes states and recently even international society itself because they see these institutions as hostile or corrupt their political positions are based on particular interpretations of islam yet other groups and individuals less well known than media-savvy extremists find in the same religion their inspiration to struggle for democracy and peaceful page 26 xxiv introduction of dialogue with other civilizations so religion is both the point of departure and the end of the road although the myriad ways getting there differ vastly understanding the religion therefore is essential

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to understanding todays islamic worldthe aim of the books second part islam like christianity is a proselytizing faith and a monopolist of truth consecutive muslim empires spread the faith the arabic language and a distinctive culture today 95 percent of the middle east is muslim yet before islam arrived 1400 years ago perhaps as much as 90 percent of it was christian the diminution of christianity in the region of its birth engendered an enduring conflict between the two rival religions over the past 200 years christianity has lost much of its influence over europeans themselves but meanwhile europes antagonistic relationship with the middle east has been exacerbated by economics and geopolitics indeed while the muslim states of the middle east were weakening the strategic importance of the region was growing a major portion of the worlds oil is found there and it has become a privileged space for rivalries with and among outside powers the overlapping of religious strategic economic and other factors explains why the middle east commands so much of the worlds attention as muslim populations try to recapture their former geopolitical might their demands challenge the vital interests of western powers and by extension of all developed capitalist countries the resulting struggle constitutes the central drama of todays international relations since this struggle has assumed more noticeably religious colorings conflicts of interest threaten to mutate into a clash of civilizations islams confrontation with modernity is the lodestar of part ii today the islamic world and especially the middle east was poorly prepared for the political economic and cultural penetration of western powers imposed by military force in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries however that supremacy was in itself an effect of the wests own modernization through the political and industrial revolutions that began in the late eighteenth century confronted with western military superiority muslims may well have felt more humiliated than other overrun civilizations for allah or god,1 had promised the muslims not only spiritual but also worldly supremacy for islam equality with let alone inferiority to the west is thus a theological absurdity there are in principle two ways of reacting to such an absurdity the islamic world can cut its losses accept the wests recipe for modernization and limit the public role of islam as a god that failed or it can retreat into religious page 27 introduction xxv traditionalism the choices are modernization or fundamentalism,

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flight forward or flight backward progress or regress and so on even projects of an islamic reformation would have trouble escaping this dilemma this book analyzes how a sequence of military socioeconomic and cultural defeats in the arab world undermined the legitimacy of regimes and projects tainted with modernization or westernization thus an ideological breach opened widened from year to year and was progressively exploited by proponents of the alternative islamic fundamentalism or islamism return to religion is of course a global phenomenon seen periodically among christians and jews not solely among muslims but nowhere has it had more dramatic effects than in the islamic world islamisms self-referential logic is simple we lost not because we were too religious and not modern enough but because we tried to imitate the west and forgot religion god abandoned us because we abandoned him islamist thinkers wholesale rejection of the western model includes not just criticism of the unjust behavior of christian powers but also a condemnation of the dissolute western social mores that are infecting the islamic world islamists have their own blueprint for a better society one that will re-create the pristine community established by islams founder the prophet muhammad what is most surprising of this utopia in reverse however is islamisms selective adoption of western-based technologies from radio and television to weapons of mass destruction this differentiates islamism from earlier islamic traditionalisms and stamps it as a modern movementhowever antimodern its ideology although unity among all muslims is printed on its banner islamism is no unified movement and differs from country to country and from one period to the next nor have most islamists been prone to violence but whether peaceful or armed islamist growth has been the leitmotiv of the islamic world over the last three decades as we analyze the expansion of islamism and dissect its varieties we cannot but ponder its wider implications islamism obtained its first limited hearing in the 1970s in countries such as egypt and syria but gained international notoriety only with irans shiite revolution in 1979 and with the first hostage takings and suicide bombings in lebanon in the 1980s since the 1980s predictions to the contrary notwithstanding islamism has continued to grow and it has grown ever more extreme the 1990s witnessed an explosion of violent incidents provoked by islamist groups from nigeria to indonesia since 9/11 at the latest the west itself has become its target ironically policies designed to cope with islamist violence have actually helped the islamists page 28 xxvi introduction real how then shouldand canthe west react are we facing dangeror sensationalist exaggeration is islam inherently a religion

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of violence or have islamists corrupted a beautiful tradition one that has enriched the world and could do so again the answers will depend first on shifts within islam however interfaith and intercivilization dialogue plays a role in stimulating answers that can be helpful for us all part iii tomorrow explores the arguments in favor of and against coexistence and its opposite the clash of civilizations our conclusions cannot be but ambiguous yet some lessons may be learned the first is that islam is potentially more flexible than either its detractors or the islamists would have us believe it admits of and needs dialogue with the other correspondingly and in order not to plunge into new wars of religions the west is no less in need of such a dialogue second dialogue is hardly conceivable with a violent islamism that calls for war to establish gods rule on earth nor is the struggle to contain violent islamism only a western interest muslims are its first and the majority of victims finally we need to transform the structural global inequality that keeps most of the islamic world trapped in a cycle of impoverishment and isolation without hope for change extremism will only intensify and spread so the task at hand is formidableand could not be more urgent page 29 key dates ten crucial episodes of islam 622 661689 744750 believers 1258 and the hijra or migration of prophet muhammad from mecca to medina start of the islamic calendar civil wars lead to the split between sunnis and shiites `abbasid revolution ends the first arab-dominated omayyad caliphate and establishes political equality among start of islams golden age of mongols golden age 1453 byzantine 1492 1683 vienna 1798 ottoman empire discovery of america breaks middle eastern monopoly of trade with asia fall of granada ends muslim hold over spain ottoman turks fail to conquer the habsburg capital turks capture constantinople end of sack baghdadend of `abbasid caliphate beginning of ottoman decline napoleon bonapartes egyptian expedition breaks mamluk power and opens the middle east to western influences

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18561857 india 19151919 against east agitation revolution in heyday of tanzimat reforms to modernize ottoman empire in india sepoy rebellion is crushed end of mughals becomes british crown colony during turks world britain war and i british-instigated france plan arab revolt of arab colonization balfour declaration promises palestine to jews end of ottoman empire joint hindu-muslim anti-british india wilsons fourteen points and russian inspire hope for independence among muslims worldwide page 30 xxviii ten crucial episodes of islamism 1924 1928 19471949 independence republic of turkey under atatrk abolishes caliphate hassan al-banna establishes muslim brotherhood in egypt partition of british mandate of palestine of israel the palestinian nakba catastrophe partition of british india independence of india and pakistan 1967 strip and six day war or june 1967 war israel defeats arab states conquers and occupies sinai west bank and gaza golan heights crisis of secular pan-arabism israeli-egypt peace accord breaks taboo on with jewish state islamic revolution establishes mixed theocraticdemocratic regime in iran led by khomeini islamists assassinate egyptian president sadat israeli key dates 19771978 negotiating 19811983 inva sion of lebanon militarily breaks plo massacre of palestinians in sabra and shatila failure of u.s french intervention first suicide bombs by shiite resistance 19881993 afghanistan interwesternism process islamist resistance leads to soviet retreat from iraq-iran war breaks irans islamist dynamism ends in stalemate iraq invades kuwait western-led international vention intifada defeats iraq in gulf war fueling israeli-plo antipeace palestinian revolt and

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ahmad yassin islamists establishes hamas 1996 20002001 intiosama bin hamass terrorism interrupts peace process taliban establish fundamentalist regime in afghanistan failure of israeli-palestinian peace process leads to second fada laden and 2001 emergence terror of hamas 9/11 al-qaeda united of western-led 2003 attack against states international intervention dislodges afghan taliban u.s led invasion and occupation of iraq attempts at democratization and international anti-western islamist mobilization page 31 part i yesterday page 32 page 33 islam in time islam origins and historical trajectory 1 sixth and seventh centuries geopolitical panorama islam started at a specific time and place about 610 ce in mecca western arabia the middle east cradle of some the worlds oldest civilizations had already had experience with two earlier monotheistic religions and these experiences facilitated the reception of a third to understand islams character and extraordinary expansion we must look both at its geopolitical context and at the religious influences of judaism and christianity in the sixth and seventh centuries arabia was peripheral to two regional superpowers the byzantine empire the long-lasting greek-speaking offshoot of the roman empire and persia the only neighbor the romans had never conquered byzantium was emphatically christian its powerful church was closely aligned with the state byzantine caesaropapism may have stood as a model for islam but suffered from two problems first with christianity as a state religion non-separation of state and religion meant that theological disputes automatically became political debates on the nature of the christ divine human or bothled to destabilizing strife the orthodox position christ has two natures became dominant in the balkans and page 34 4 yesterday anatolia in the fertile crescent todays israel/palestine syria and

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