“How proud he would have felt […] to have seen those seeds germinate into a Muslim nation, a Land of the Pure. How it would have broken his heart to see that Land of the Pure become a medieval theocracy and then rip itself apart in tribal factionalism. The Word of God prophecies from the barrel of an AK47.”

Source: River of Gods (2006), Ch. 37 (p. 411).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "How proud he would have felt […] to have seen those seeds germinate into a Muslim nation, a Land of the Pure. How it wo…" by Ian McDonald?
Ian McDonald photo
Ian McDonald 30
British science fiction novelist 1960

Related quotes

Sarah Dessen photo
Uthman photo

“If our hearts were truly pure, we would never have our fill of the words of your Lord.”

Uthman (574–656) Companion of Muhammad and third Rashidun Caliph

Jami al-Uloon wa'l-Hikm, p. 363

Marvin Gaye photo

“Oooh, oh, how many eyes
Have seen their dream?
Oh, how many arms
Have felt their dream?
How many hearts, baby…
Have felt their world stand still?”

Marvin Gaye (1939–1984) American singer-songwriter and musician

If I Should Die Tonight.
Song lyrics, Let's Get It On (1973)

Sarah Dessen photo
Bill Mollison photo
Bart D. Ehrman photo
Kate DiCamillo photo
William Lane Craig photo

“There is one important aspect of my answer that I would change, however. I have come to appreciate as a result of a closer reading of the biblical text that God’s command to Israel was not primarily to exterminate the Canaanites but to drive them out of the land. It was the land that was (and remains today!) paramount in the minds of these Ancient Near Eastern peoples. The Canaanite tribal kingdoms which occupied the land were to be destroyed as nation states, not as individuals. The judgment of God upon these tribal groups, which had become so incredibly debauched by that time, is that they were being divested of their land. Canaan was being given over to Israel, whom God had now brought out of Egypt. If the Canaanite tribes, seeing the armies of Israel, had simply chosen to flee, no one would have been killed at all. There was no command to pursue and hunt down the Canaanite peoples.
It is therefore completely misleading to characterize God’s command to Israel as a command to commit genocide. Rather it was first and foremost a command to drive the tribes out of the land and to occupy it. Only those who remained behind were to be utterly exterminated. There may have been no non-combatants killed at all. That makes sense of why there is no record of the killing of women and children, such as I had vividly imagined. Such scenes may have never taken place, since it was the soldiers who remained to fight. It is also why there were plenty of Canaanite people around after the conquest of the land, as the biblical record attests.”

[Subject: The “Slaughter” of the Canaanites Re-visited, Reasonable Faith, http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8973, 2011-10-20], quoted in [Why I refuse to debate with William Lane Craig, Richard, Dawkins, Guardian, 2011-10-20, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/20/richard-dawkins-william-lane-craig, 2011-10-20]

Johannes Tauler photo

Related topics