[Reader-list] WINSTON CHURCHILL ON ISLAM

[hpp at vsnl.com]

Dear Friends

Yesterday I came upon something posted on the blog 
http://groundzerotomajortom.blogmilitant.com/

This was a quote from Winston Churchill, about Islam. As the blog is in 
French, I could'nt make out what the stance of the blogger was. I suspect 
s/he is an Islamophobe!

Though I found the purported view of Churchill highly offensive, nonetheless 
it is very revealing, and provides some insight on various subjects.

I am reminded of something a former IAS officer and well-known (Hindi)writer once told me: "The Koran is a manual of terrorism".

You see what you are!

Best

V Ramaswamy
Calcutta
cuckooscall.blogspot.com

.............

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! 
Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia 
in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly 
systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of 
property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the

next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every 
woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a 
wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery

until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the 
religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.

No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, 
Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread 
throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were 
it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the 
science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern 
Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."

Sir Winston Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 
(London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).