Freedom Bulwark | Evil triumphs when good people do nothing

I received this information in an email advertisement from PJ Media, so I thought I would post it as a blog entry so that I could link to it for everyone's benefit. Whether Muslim or non-Muslim, secular or religious, these principles are valuable for all.

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A frequent topic that recurs in discussions of Islam and Western Civilization is Samuel P. Huntington's book, The Clash of Civilizations. But this is somewhat of a misnomer because the friction between Islam and the West is really only the same age-old conflict between civilization and barbarianism, or as the classical scholars put it in Latin, humanitas versus barbaritas. Muslims in the comments sections get offended when I put it this way, or if I say they are barbarians or savages. So I thought it might be useful to provide a definition of the terms in order to clarify the conversation. 

Barbarianism is just the absence of, or the opposite of, humanism, so I am here presenting a small article from the work of Dr. L.H. Peer on humanism. As an internationally recognized scholar published in peer-reviewed academic journals, his definition is authoritative, but I would like to add some caveats because there are some differences between technical academic terms and the way they are used in popular speech, and also between the standards applicable to academic rigor and those applicable to the general public.

The Center for the Study of Political Islam has published a new translation of the Quran in Modern English by Bill Warner based on scientific analysis. It is integrated with the history and biography of Muhammed in the Sira and Hadith. He calls it "The Reconstructed Historical Koran". This is more than just presenting the suras in their order of appearance in the history, He has done further processing of the Quran as explained in this section from the Epilogue:

The Methodology of The Simple Koran