What exactly is “contemporary European philosophy”? Surely these fellows don’t mean the soulless solipsistic relativist meanderings that pass for philosophy in most Western countries these days. Maybe they mean the terrific idea of deciding to accept the Arab League’s foreign policy and committing cultural suicide by encouraging massive Muslim immigration without assimilation in exchange for cheap oil. Now there’s a philosophy (of sorts) that is going to influence Europe for generations to come. “Austria Hosts ‘Islam & West’ Forum” from IslamOnline, with thanks to Ali Dashti:
VIENNA, March 8, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) — The Cultural League in Austria (Alte Schmiede) is organizing a forum on March 10, in a bid to cement dialogue between Islam and the West, in addition to countering the “˜clash of civilization” mantra.
The three-day forum will showcase books of divergent ideologies reinforcing common grounds between Islam and the West through out the centuries and how they both helped enrich one another, the forum’s organizers, Walter Famler and Erich Klein, said in a Web site statement.
“Had it not been for the Arab thought, there would have not been a contemporary European philosophy. The fundamentals of the European poetry is based on Arabic basics,” they said.
The missive deplored terminology like the “clash of civilizations,” “the barbers,” “the crusades,” and the “infidels,” saying the usage is worsening the already parlous situation.
“The West and Islam equation should not be solved by army generals or strategists, who work tirelessly to extend the domino effect of the clash of civilizations” theory from the East to the West; from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean,” the organizers added.
Right. In Europe, there is no clash. There is only a capitulation.