And so it ends in Mosul, Iraq . . . .
Mosul’s bloodbath: ‘We killed everyone – IS, men, women, children’
Meanwhile — as if one can slip from the contents of the above article with a helpless sigh — Tom Holland, a historian whose books I’ve much enjoyed — “Unlike most historians, Tom Holland writes books which bring the past to life” — has gone a bit funny with his gushiness over Christianity . . . .
It came from
Michael Bird: Tom Holland: Why I Was Wrong about Christianity (2016-09-16)
Darrell Pursiful: Tom Holland Was Wrong about Christianity (2016-09-16)
Larry Hurtado: Tom Holland and Hurtado on Early Christianity (2016-10-10)
and no doubt others I missed.
The reason I mention him in this context is that he has most recently he has produced a Channel 4 doco for the BBC that I have not seen, but I have read first, a rebuttal of a rebuttal of the doco, and then I read the rebuttal of the doco. I found both worth thinking about.
First, the one I also read first, the rebuttal of the rebuttal of Tom Holland’s doco:
An inconvenient truth: IS draws on Islamic sources for its inspiration by Philip Wood
Yes, there is no basis for critics of Atran and co to say that there is no religious role in terrorism. Of course religion plays a part. But I am being slightly misleading and I think just slightly twisting a little Philip Wood’s message by putting it like that. Religion is obviously a component of Islamic State and those who act barbarically in sympathy with that group. To get a fuller picture I think one must, must, read the article that Wood is addressing:
No, Channel 4: Islam is not responsible for the Islamic State by Peter Oborne
Oborne’s article is much longer so set aside some free time before deciding to read it. Both articles together, I think, are worthy initiators of questions and thinking through issues.
The latter, Oborne’s article, also contains links to other material that looks interesting and worth knowing about and that I have already begun to follow up, a webpage and two books that look like necessary additions to my little library on terrorism.
Informed discussion …. something that sometimes seems to be sorely lacking in this area.
Neil Godfrey
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