Sadly, humans tend to exclude and mistreat people different from themselves. The most successful societies typically believe in their own superiority. For centuries, the Chinese elites viewed their civilization as the world leader and all others as its humble tributaries. When the British envoy to China refused to fall on his face ritualistically before the Qianlong EMperor in 1793, the court expressed outrage. Many Muslims also have beleived their civilization to be greater than all others. As late as 1949, Hassan al-Banna (1906-49), the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, argued that the Islamic religion was infinetly more accomplished, more pure, more glorious, more complete, and more beautiful than all that has been discovered up till now by social theorist and reformers. So the peoples of the West were not unique in their cultural arrogance. --JONATHAN DALY, The Rise of Western Power.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 03:35:05 +0000
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