Okay now let’s, let’s, I don’t want to spend much more time on history because time is short we’ll just present the argument. But then to bring it up to a more modern period you’re all well aware that around the 19th century or the 18th century, the Europeans had a huge explosion of power and technology and began to expand into the world, spreading imperial control over the entire world. Almost every single country in the world was under some degree of European imperial control. This has been resented everywhere in the world but of course in what was then the Muslim world. They were not resentful because they were Muslims, they were resentful because they were being colonized or fell under the imperial control of Europe. And following that as you all know there were further western invasions, seizure or control of energy resources, overthrowing of leaders in the Middle East who were not responsive to western American or British or French Authority and imperial power. The story goes on and on, you’re all very familiar with these particular events. Obviously these events are enough to justify considerable anger against the west that has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with oil and power and military invasion and intervention, and manipulation and political manipulation and changing of borders and political divisions, all of these things. The Arab Israeli a situation which again we tend to think of as a religious problem had nothing to do with religion. It has to do as you know with western European Jews who were discriminated against and killed for centuries in western Europe and culminating in the hideous holocaust at which point western Europe was so distraught and embarrassed and guilt that it decided the best thing would be to send the rest of the Jews off to the homeland that they wanted. And as you know the European Jews had migrated in very large numbers. Well the Palestinians had to pay the price for this, we know this.

Do we really believe that if the Palestinians had not been Muslim, that they would have welcomed western European Jews coming and colonizing their land and taking much of this land away? In fact many of them were not Muslim many of them were Christian and also joined armed resistance against Israel Christians. You remember many of the great names, famous names of Palestinian resistance in the 50s, 60s and the 70s were Christian and not Muslim strugglers, fighters against Israeli occupation. Even if the Palestinians had been Buddhist it would have been exactly the same situation. So we’re not really talking about religion. Now where does religion come in? I only argue that yes every big movement likes to have an umbrella, an exciting umbrella by which it can make a greater cause. Nobody wants to fight to take your land or to take your money or take your resources. We are doing it in the name of god or in the name of freedom or human rights or spreading or… the working class the future [pluralitarian] this is something the union used to say or Hitler in the name of the Aryan superiority of white Aryan supremacy. For any number of reasons some Muslims were doing it in the name of Islam because they think that that’s right it’s a minority but there have been those. So religion is used as a vehicle as a mechanism as a banner as an umbrella in most cases. I would argue today unfortunately the relevance of Islam as a banner has become greater as these attacks have broadened and western intervention in the Muslim world has increased especially with the global war on terrorism. So today Muslims Palestinian Muslims watch Kashmiri Muslims dying on television prime time watch the blood. Iraqis can see Afghans or Bosnians can see other Muslims. So the sense of umma has gotten greater I would argue the sense of umma today s greater than it’s ever been in the history of the Muslim world. Not… and primarily due to better communications; the people are now going to be hugely aware immediately of these events that are taking place around the world and identify with them. And especially when the global war on terrorism looks like it is primarily a global war on Islam. I don’t think that’s what it was specifically intended to be. But that’s in effect what it has amounted to in the end.