tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post114686639596953351..comments2023-08-14T11:05:03.594+00:00Comments on NoolaBeulah: Cardinal George Pell on IslamNoolaBeulahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-27417139985081415152007-08-10T21:57:00.000+00:002007-08-10T21:57:00.000+00:00Wasn't he accusing them of not knowing Aramaic?Wasn't he accusing them of not knowing Aramaic?NoolaBeulahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-45862655881119967892007-08-10T21:44:00.000+00:002007-08-10T21:44:00.000+00:00The linguistics in François De Blois' review is, t...The linguistics in François De Blois' review is, to my knowledge, correct. Christoph does indeed make mistakes in Arabic, the most egregious of which are the inability to realize the difference between the dual nominative and the singular accusative. Idiotic, really, considering that he accuses the original compilers of the Qur'an to have not known their own language.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-76016793370341167942007-06-25T13:42:00.000+00:002007-06-25T13:42:00.000+00:00The plot thickens. François de Blois is right abou...The plot thickens. François de Blois is right about one thing at least (as I said, I cannot comment on the linguistics): these things must be discussed in public. Scholarship that is closed to debate loses the name of scholarship, but this is the very difficulty we face. To judge from anecdotal reports, discussion is being closed down because of fear -fear of Islamic reprisals. (I detail a few cases of this <A HREF="http://noolabeulah.blogspot.com/2006/10/pre-emptive-censorship.html" REL="nofollow">here</A>). <BR/><BR/>Actually, my anger is aroused less by the Islamists than by the Westerners who censor themselves. The real problem, I believe, is <B>ours</B> in that we have lost the habit of defending our liberties. The Islamic world is going through a huge transformation, the adaptation to industrial-technological modernity that caused so pain in the West and that the Middle East held off for so long. Just as Christianity did, Islam now seeks to ward off the great changes that are forced on it. It is painful. But it is not helped by us refusing to defend ourselves, especially in the field of ideas.NoolaBeulahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-62927663836008843972007-06-25T10:27:00.000+00:002007-06-25T10:27:00.000+00:00I agree that there is fanatics in every religion a...I agree that there is fanatics in every religion and maybe especially within Muslims.<BR/>Salman Rushdi is still alive Tasneem also and many others even in Arabic countries.<BR/><BR/><BR/>How Muslims schlors can discuss with anonyms about their thesis ?<BR/><BR/>Luxenberg have to convict Muslims or Others that his thesis is correct ?<BR/><BR/>This is what “François de Blois” a French Professor said about Luxenberg :<BR/>“It is necessary, in conclusion to say a little about the authorship, or rather the non-authorship, the pseudonymity of this book. An article published in the New York Times on 2nd March 2002 (and subsequently broadly disseminated in the internet) referred to this book as the work of 'Christoph Luxenberg, a scholar of ancient Semitic languages in Germany'. It is, I think, sufficiently clear from this review that the person in question is not 'a scholar of ancient Semitic languages'. He is someone who evidently speaks some Arabic dialect, has a passable, but not flawless command of classical Arabic, knows enough Syriac so as to be able to consult a dictionary, but is innocent of any real understanding of the methodology of comparative Semitic linguistics. His book is not a work of scholarship but of dilettantism. <BR/>The NYT article goes on to state that 'Christoph Luxeuberg is a pseudonym', to compare him with Salman Rushdie, Naguib Mahfouz and Suliman Bashear and to talk about 'threatened violence as well as the widespread reluctance on United States college campuses to criticize other cultures'. I am not sure what precisely the author means with 'in Germany'. According to my information, 'Christoph Luxenberg' is not a German but a Lebanese Christian. It is thus not a question of some intrepid philologist, pouring over dusty books in obscure languages somewhere in the provinces of Germany and then having to publish his results under a pseudonym so as to avoid the death threats of rabid Muslim extremists, in short an ivory-tower Rushdie. Let us not exaggerate the state of academic freedom in what we still like to call our Western democracies. No European or North American scholar of linguistics, even of Arabic linguistics, needs to conceal his (or her) identity, nor does he (or she) really have any right to do so. These matters must be discussed in public. In the Near East things are, of course, very different.”Témérairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01753143326953187818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-11765059349005082522007-06-24T10:39:00.000+00:002007-06-24T10:39:00.000+00:00Téméraire V5.0 I have no means of judging which re...Téméraire V5.0 <BR/>I have no means of judging which reconstruction of early Arabic is correct - I do not know Arabic nor enough about historical linguistics to assess the rival claims. People like me, on the 'outside', depend on scholars, who, in turn, depend on peer review and open debate. Unfortunately, there are those within Islam who do everything they can to smother open debate both within and without Islam. Thus scholars like Luxemberg need to use psuedonyms and their books are not translated. It may well be that Saifullah, Ghoniem & Zaman are correct, but it will be difficult for people like me to accept that while the debate is frustrated by a climate of fear.NoolaBeulahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02181815160785834692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19748732.post-4505178533095063582007-06-23T22:38:00.000+00:002007-06-23T22:38:00.000+00:00Luxenberg do not know anything abaout arabic writi...Luxenberg do not know anything abaout arabic writing and this is to show you his main errors in his book : http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Mss/vowel.htmlTémérairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01753143326953187818noreply@blogger.com