Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

by Tamim Ansary

Many religions say to their followers, “The world is corrupt, but you can escape it.” Islam said to its followers, “The world is corrupt, but you can change it.”

The Crusaders so disgusted the Muslims that they came to appreciate the Byzantines by contrast.

During that war, U. S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with Ibn Saud, and the two men reached an understanding to which both sides have adhered faithfully ever since, even though it is not enshrined in any formal public treaty. The deal ensures the U.S. unfettered access to Saudi oil; in exchange, the Saudi royal family gets as much U.S. military equipment and technology as it needs to stay in power against all comers. Indirectly, this understanding partnered the United States with the Wahhabi clerical establishment and made American military prowess the guarantor of the Wahhabi reform movement.

The existence of Israel signified European dominance over Muslims, Arab and non-Arab, and over the people of Asia and Africa generally. That’s how it looked from almost any point between the Indus and Istanbul.

until recent centuries, it made more sense to speak of Judeo-Muslim than of Judeo-Christian culture.

Islam is a social project like those others, an idea for how politics and the economy ought to be managed, a complete system of civil and criminal law.