Bin Laden still fighting an ancient battle

Since the Sept. 11 attack, many of us have been learning and thinking about things that would have never entered our minds prior to that time.

Locally, our post office had to deal with a suspicious piece of mail.

A number of us watched the CNN TV special hosted by Christiane Amanpour, the news correspondent. From her, we learned that in Arabic Islam means submission or surrender. She explained that technically a Muslim is a person who submits or surrenders themselves to Allah or God.

Personally, I have become interested in some things written by Dr. James A. Toronto. He is a respected American scholar, who received a doctorate from Harvard in Islamic studies. He is a friend of my late cousin, Spencer J. Palmer, and recently was the director of the Center for Cultural and Educational Affairs in Amman, Jordan. Altogether, he lived in the Middle East for more than 10 years.

Toronto says that devoted Muslims speak of Islam as the religion of peace. He explains that the root word for Islam comes from Salaam, which in Arabic means "peace." Quite frankly, I doubt that the Taliban or bin Laden are busy, thinking along these lines.

I have also been re-reading "World History, A Story of Man's Achievements," by Habberton, Roth and Spears, published in 1962 by Laidlaw Brothers. It tells some interesting facts about the spread of Islam. For instance, it states that after Mohammed's death in 632 A.D., his followers organized themselves into a fierce army of religious fanatics and militant radicals. (The Taliban and bin Laden's followers seem to be reliving those days.) These Arab-warriors left the Arabian peninsula, proclaiming Islam with a sword and killing those who did not convert.

In Denver, I taught under William Spears, one of the authors of this book, when he was the principal of Asbury Elementary School. Once we discussed the Moslems' invasion of the world. He described it as a huge cyclone which struck the Mediterranean and overturned its prevailing cultures. In addition to this, he talked about the counteroffensive waged by the Christians to keep the Moslems out of western Europe. Modern-day Moslems are very sensitive to these events and issues related to them. Bin Laden and his supporters still seem to be fighting a battle against the non-Moslem world. Raymond Carr edited a book called "Spain. A History," in 2000. He tells what happened when the Moslems' entry into western Europe was checked. He explains that they turned their interests to northern Africa, western Asia and Spain. He implies that the Christians stopped them with a strong military action.

Carr points out that the Moors or Moslems controlled much of Spain from 711 A.D. until 1236 A.D. In fact, Cordova became a Moorish or Moslem province. During that period of history, according to Carr, Spain enjoyed the positive aspects of Moslem education, culture and knowledge. Some western Europeans even went to Cordova to study astronomy, medicine and mathematics.

Many of the people who were conquered by the Moslems learned Arabic and used Arabic numbers. They also became connected to important trade routes dominated by the Arabs.

The Afghans and Turks were not conquered by the Moslems until the 10th century. They were converted to Islam and later invaded by the Mongols. When the Moslems arrived in their area, they were living in tribal groups, much like they do now. Their rugged terrain and distant location separated them from the cultural advantages enjoyed by Spain and some other Moslem-dominated countries.

Today, the Taliban forbids the education of women in Afghanistan. A majority of its people are illiterate and they are not allowed to learn about the outside world, since television is not available to them.

As we watch Taliban demonstrators, we realize that a fierce army of militant fanatics still exists. They hold a vice-like grip on these people with curtailed knowledge and access to outside resources. At least those who have escaped from the missiles and the Taliban have some possibility of obtaining food that is dropped.

-- The writer is a former teacher in the McCook Public Schools.