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Life After Death_ A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion - Alan Segal [476]

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in his Guide was only what could be proven by scientific and philosophical inquiry, but as a Jew he believed that a great deal more was revealed in Scripture. There are some who believe that Maimonides actually had an exoteric doctrine that approximated orthodox Jewish thinking and a more esoteric doctrine that correspondend to the beliefs of the philosophers. Some of the same kinds of ambiguity can be seen in Aquinas, who writes in full knowledge of Averroes and Maimonides. Aquinas’s concept of the soul is the “form of the body,” but his description of it owes as much to Aristotle as Plato. In contradistinction to the Sufis, Aquinas argues forthrightly for the soul’s indestructibility (Summa Theologica 1 q 76, art. 6).

50. B. Lewis, What Went Wrong? p. 142, however, attributes the origins of this dramatic form to a Turkish adoptation of Italian Commedia dell’arte performances, which became very popular all over Turkey and was renamed Orta Oyunu. One hears about the form starting at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

51. See B. Lewis, The Crisis in Islam, p. 36.

52. See Runciman, A History of the Crusades; Schimmelpfening, The Papacy; and my thanks to Yehuda Kurtzer for his term paper on the subject.

53. See Einbinder, Beautiful Death.

54. See Quasem, Salvation of the Soul.

55. See Ramadan, To Be a European Muslim; Islam, the West; Mernissi, Islam and Democracy; Fadl, The Place of Tolerance in Islam; Kurzman, Liberal Islam.

56. See Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God.

57. ḥamas means literally “fervor” in Arabic but it is, additionally, an acronym for “the Movement for Muslim Resistance, a religiously-based “liberation” movement. Ironically, ḥamas (with a samekh) means “violence” in Hebrew and is famously cited in Gen 6:11 and 13 as the condition which brought about the flood: “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and the earth was full of violence (ḥamas).” And, in verse 13, “God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh for the earth is filled with violence (ḥamas) through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth.’”

58. Literally, “the Party of God,” the group is named after the founding events of Shi’ite Islam, which led inexorably to the martyrdom of Hussein. As a result, the very title of the group brings with it a rich tradition of martyrdom.

59. “The Base,” but, in this case, probably more correctly translated as “The Database Network.”

60. See Kepel, The Revenge of God.

61. Mylroie, A Study of Revenge; Emerson, American Jihad.

62. See D. Brown, “Martyrdom in Sunni Revivalist Thought,” p. 113; also see Kepel, Jihad, pp. 23-42.

63. Paul Berman has written a feature article on Sayyid Qutb for the New York Times Sunday Magazine: “The Philosopher of Islamic Terror,” March 23, 2003.

64. This is exactly Paul Berman’s description of the contribution of Sayyid Qutb in his article.

65. Droge and Taylor, A Noble Death; Boyarin, Dying for God.

66. See, for example, Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors.

67. No proof is needed to counter this absurd allegation that Israel took down the World Trade Center, though the evidence is that approximately the same number of Jews died in the attack as there are in the general population of New York and New Jersey-roughly 15 percent. Besides, Friedman, Longitudes and Attitudes; also see Barbara Walters’ 20/20 report of March 29, summarized as “Mosques and Malls: A Rare Look at Saudi Arabia,” at http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/dailynews/2020_saudi_walters_020329.html for a summary of the program.

68. See Atran, In Gods We Trust; “Genesis of Suicide Terrorism.”

69. See “MSNBC Investigates” episode called “Shahid: The Mind of a Suicide Bomber,” broadcast in Winter 2002, which contains interviews with failed suicide bombers in Israeli jails.

70. Anyone who has watched Al-Jazeera can verify this information. Even the so-called independent Arab voice goes way beyond what could be called political support. See the new afterword in B. Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites, written well before the recent post-9/11 spate of suicide

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