"[This book] embodies the Buddhist wisdom about change, life, and the world more than anything written after the events of that day." |
« Previous · Home · Next » October 11, 2010PEACE: POINTED TALKING POINTSLast week I attended a debate at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y between my friend and colleague Christopher Hitchens (author, Vanity Fair columnist, public intellectual extraordinaire) and Tariq Ramadan (the renowned Islamic scholar who, in 2004, under provisions of the Bush administration’s Patriot Act, was barred from entering the U.S. to lecture and teach at Notre Dame). Their subject: “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?” Several key observations stuck with me…. From Ramadan: “What is the wheel of God? Diversity.” From Hitchens: [Apropos of the repressive tendency of absolutist states]: “Total. It’s the first five letters of the word 'totalitarianism.' ” |