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#David_Marquand on the End of the West

Before we talk about your five books, I am interested in definitions of #East and #West. What do you regard as the old fashioned perception of East and West?

The essence of the old fashioned perception is this. The West is seen as the home of modernity, of the values of the Enlightenment, of democracy and of market economics. The East is seen as backward, and lacking in the values of the Enlightenment which it never experienced. In the eyes of many people in the West, it follows that the West is both more advanced than the East and morally superior to it. This is a gross over-simplification of course, but that is the old perception.
►http://thebrowser.com/interviews/david-marquand-on-end-west?page=1

The Ornament of the World By Maria Rosa Menocal

about Great historical #civilisations out of the #West.

David Marquand in an interview ;
I found the book quite inspiring because it showed the possibility of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish civilisations living together”

Maria Rosa Menocal’s The Ornament of the World, describes a time when the three big religions of #Christianity, J#udaism and #Islam lived in harmony.

This had a huge influence on me when I was researching my latest book. I think the biggest threat to the values of pluralist democracy in present day Europe is Islamophobia. There is a very serious danger that this will be to the 21st century what anti-semitism was to the last century. I don’t think it has done so yet, but it could. I found the Rosa Menocal book quite inspiring because of what it showed about the possibility of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish civilisations living together. They managed to co-exist peacefully and to learn from each other in the period that we think of as the Middle Ages or even the Dark Ages [the eighth to 16th centuries].

She describes #Andalusia in Spain.
►http://thebrowser.com/recommended/ornament-world-by-maria-rosa-menocal