generalspeaking

Occident and Orient

"I felt that among all the possible exhibitions, this would be a particular priority."
"Oftentimes, there is a lack of knowledge about and comprehension of other cultures, especially Islamic culture."
"There are tensions that come out of the present day, on both sides."
Eike Schmidt, director, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

"For us, Islam is nothing new; it's a culture that we know well."
"Florence has had an uninterrupted relationship with the Islamic worlds from at least 1400 to the present day."
Giovanni Curatola, professor of Islamic art and archeology, University of Udine

"[The Florence exhibition] helps Italians understand that Islam is not something attributed to primitive and illiterate people, but a great civilization that had relations with Italy."
"It also gives Muslims in Italy a reason to be proud, and a sense of belonging."
Stefano Allievi, professor of sociology, University of Padua

Quite obviously the academic and arts community of professionals in Italy do not share their current government's attitude toward the flooding of the country's islands as an entry to Europe of countless Muslim refugees, many of whom, if not most, are anxious to escape the chaotic violence, repression, oppression, persecution, conflicts, insecurity, threats and economic instability of their Muslim-governed countries of birth and residence. So much for the great heritage of Islam trickling down to the present day.

Islam is basically a tribal religion, one that foisted itself on the Middle East, Southeast Asia, North Africa and parts of Europe, including parts of Spain, Portugal and of Italy, until Christianity reasserted itself and transported Europe back into the realm of its Christian heritage. Al Andalus is the Muslim cry of agony over its loss of the splendour of its occupation of Spain; Muslim scholars and clerics deplore that loss, convinced it is but a matter of time before Islam once again reasserts itself to its lost place in Europe.

From how things stand at present, through generations of immigration, in Germany and elsewhere as cheap, temporary labour, Islam has managed to infiltrate most of western Europe and the north, more latterly as refugees, while eastern Europe has been firmly closing its borders to the entry of Muslims viewing them in the harsh reality of deliberate displacers of the prevailing religion of Christianity, as well as importing the culture, values, laws and ideology of Islam in a slow but steady conversion of European culture and values and laws.

The golden age of Islam during its occupation of Europe did see an explosion of vibrant art and architecture, scientific invention including the rise of complex mathematics and astronomy, and then that brilliant flash of genius appears to have evaporated, leaving behind the richness of its invention for posterity. In the wake of which Islamic progress fossilized and the ideology festered focusing on the acceleration of conquest, arrested by the European push-back and exiling of Muslims until the current era.

Islam has ossified into its original structure and purpose, as an invading violent force of conquest. From Islamic scholarship in mathematical theory, geometry and optics along with artistic representation of exquisite beauty what is left is a primitive, medieval mindset and a tribal savagery that has decimated its populations from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Lebanon onward to North Africa in Sudan, Somalia, Mali and elsewhere. Where fundamentalist Islamists have regenerated slavery and the brutalization of minorities, ethnic groups and other religions as unworthy of existence.

Gentile de Fabriano’s gold-encrusted 1423 “Adoration of the Magi” altarpiece features Arabic script on the Virgin Mary’s and Saint Joseph’s haloes (Wikimedia Commons)

Labels: Architecture, Art, Conflict, Conquest, Europe, Islam, Italy

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, September 06, 2018