Re: Ghazals of Ghalib (Re: The Last Mughal)

On Apr 24, 2007, at 11:04 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:

Today is a good day to remember that secular nationalism is worse for minorities than Islam:

http://herodote.net/dossiers/evenement.php5?jour=3D19150424 24 avril 1915 Le g=E9nocide arm=E9nien

Le samedi 24 avril 1915, =E0 Istamboul, capitale de l’empire ottoman, 600 notables arm=E9niens sont assassin=E9s sur ordre du gouvernement. C’est le d=E9but d’un g=E9nocide (*), le premier du XXe si=E8cle. Il va faire environ 1,2 million de victimes dans la population arm=E9nienne de l’empire turc.

I’m so glad you presented that little item in the original French; =

its loveliness is as untranslatable as a Valery poem!

Your introductory comment is pretty nonsensical. Islam is a religion, =

and can be good, bad, or neither. One can make a long list of things =

that are “worse than Islam” - e.g., Naziism, phosgene, brain tumors, =

English food. Islamism, and Islamic theocracy, is another ball of wax =

entirely. Your Islamist pals in Tehran have persecuted, often =

viciously, a host of religious and national minotiries in Iran - =

among them fellow Moslems who made the mistake of adhering to the =

Sunni rather than the Shia brand.

Doug

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