Can Non-Europeans Think_ - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

8/22/2019 Can Non-Europeans Think_ - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

1/11

22/05/13 Can non-Europeans think? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html 1/11

News Programmes Video Blogs Opinion In Depth Business Human Rights Sport Weathe r Watch Liv e

Columbia University Books

TweetTweet 1,491 163

Hamid Dabashi

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at

Columbia University.

Can non-Europeans think?What happens with thinkers who operate outside the European philosophical 'pedigree'?

Last Modified: 15 Jan 2013 11:41

In a lovely little panegyric for the distinguished European philosopher Slavoj Zizek, published recently on

LATEST: FOOTBALL: KASHIWA REYSOL, LEKHW

Like 25k

The works of French philosopher Michel Foucault is usually at the forefront of Eurocentric philosophy [AFP]

RELATED

A philosophy for the protesters

The OWS movement grew out of the philos ophical

paradox that our financial s ystem could not contain

flaws. ( 03-Jan-2012 )

Why so many communist philosophers?

Does anything really m atter?

When philosophers join the kill chain
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/20121224122215406939.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011112816183696394.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011112816183696394.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/20128710139185997.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/06/2011614132336350540.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/06/20126511494498219.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011112816183696394.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011112816183696394.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/20121224122215406939.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/hamid-dabashi.htmlhttp://app.readspeaker.com/cgi-bin/rsent?customerid=5707&lang=en_us&voice=Kate&readid=tdTextContent&url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.htmlhttp://twitter.com/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Fopinion%2F2013%2F01%2F2013114142638797542.htmlhttps://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Fopinion%2F2013%2F01%2F2013114142638797542.html&text=Can%20non-Europeans%20think%3F&tw_p=tweetbutton&url=http%3A%2F%2Faje.me%2FRWETN6&via=AJEnglishhttp://www.aljazeera.com/Services/Rss/?PostingId=201132774031921759http://www.amazon.com/Hamid-Dabashi/e/B001JPAEA6/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1324473447&sr=8-1http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mesaas/http://www.aljazeera.net/http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/http://www.aljazeera.com/weather/http://www.aljazeera.com/sport/http://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/http://www.aljazeera.com/business/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/http://blogs.aljazeera.com/http://www.aljazeera.com/video/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/http://www.aljazeera.com/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/2013514115836301175.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/http://www.aljazeera.com/


2/11



"Why is European philosophy

'philosophy', but African philosophy

'ethnophilosophy'?"

Al Jazeera, we read:

There are many important and active philosophers today: Judith Butler in the United States,

Simon Critchley in England, Victoria Camps in Spain, Jean-Luc Nancy in France, Chantal

Mouffe in Belgium, Gianni Vattimo in Italy, Peter Sloterdijk in Germany and in Slovenia, Slavoj

Zizek, not to mention others working in Brazil, Australia and China.

What immediately strikes the reader when seeing this opening paragraph is the unabashedly European

character and disposition of the thing the author calls "philosophy today" - thus laying a claim on both the

subject and time that is peculiar and in fact an exclusive property of Europe.

Even Judith Butler who is cited as an example from the United States is decidedly a product of Europeanphilosophical genealogy, thinking somewhere between Derrida and Foucault, brought to bear on our

understanding of gender and sexuality.

To be sure, China and Brazil (and Australia, which is also a European extension) are cited as the location of

other philosophers worthy of the designation, but none of them evidently merits a specific name to be sitting

next to these eminent European philosophers.

The question of course is not the globality of philosophical visions that all these prominent European (and

by extension certain American) philosophers indeed share and from which people from the deepest corners

of Africa to the remotest villages of India, China, Latin America, and the Arab and Muslim world ("deep and

far", that is, from a fictive European centre) can indeed learn and better understand their lives.

That goes without saying, for without that confidence and self-consciousness these philosophers and the

philosophical traditions they represent can scarce lay any universal claim on our epistemic credulities, norwould they be able to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard and write a sentence.

Thinkers outside Europe

These are indeed not only eminent philosophers, but the philosophy they practice has the globality of

certain degrees of self-conscious confidence without which no thinking can presume universality.

The question is rather something else: What about other thinkers who operate outside this European

philosophical pedigree, whether they practice their thinking in the European languages they have colonially

inherited or else in their own mother tongues - in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, thinkers that have actually

earned the dignity of a name, and perhaps even the pedigree of a "public intellectual" not too dissimilar to

Hannah Arendt, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Michel Foucault that in this piece on Al Jazeera are offered as

predecessors of Zizek?

What about thinkers outside the purview of these European

philosophers; how are we to name and designate and honour and

learn from them with the epithet of "public intellectual" in the age of

globalised media?

Do the constellation of thinkers from South Asia, exemplified by

leading figures like Ashis Nandy, Partha Chatterjee, Gayatri Spivak, Ranajit Guha, Sudipta Kaviraj, Dipesh

Chakrabarty, Homi Bhabha, or Akeel Bilgrami, come together to form a nucleus of thinking that is conscious

of itself? Would that constellation perhaps merit the word "thinking" in a manner that would qualify one of

them - as a South Asian - to the term "philosopher" or "public intellectuals"?

Are they "South Asian thinkers" or "thinkers", the way these European thinkers are? Why is it that if Mozart

sneezes it is "music" (and I am quite sure the great genius even sneezed melodiously) but the most

sophisticated Indian music ragas are the subject of "ethnomusicology"?

Is that "ethnos" not also applicable to the philosophical thinking that Indian philosophers practice - so much

so that their thinking is more the subject of Western European and North American anthropological fieldwork

and investigation?

We can turn around and look at Africa. What about thinkers like Henry Odera Oruka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o,

Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Okot p'Bitek, Taban Lo Liyong, Achille Mbembe, Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze,

Souleymane Bachir Diagne, V.Y. Mudimbe: Would they qualify for the term "philosopher" or "public

intellectuals" perhaps, or is that also "ethnophilosophy"?

Why is European philosophy "philosophy", but African philosophy ethnophilosophy, the way Indian music is

ethnomusic - an ethnographic logic that is based on the very same reasoning that if you were to go to the

New York Museum of Natural History (popularised in Shawn Levy's Night at the Museum [2006]), you only

see animals and non-white peoples and their cultures featured inside glass cages, but no cage is in sight for

white people and their cultures - they just get to stroll through the isles and enjoy the power and ability of

looking at taxidermic Yaks, cave dwellers, elephants, Eskimos, buffalo, Native Americans, etc, all in a single

winding row.

The same ethnographic gaze is evident in the encounter with the intellectual disposition of the Arab or

Muslim world: Azmi Bishara, Sadeq Jalal Al-Azm, Fawwaz Traboulsi, Abdallah Laroui, Michel Kilo, Abdolkarim

Soroush. The list of prominent thinkers and is endless.

OPINION

An increasingly uncheckedsurveillance state

MURTAZA HUSSAIN

Success requires consequences forfailure

JOHN V. WHITBECK

Why we feel for Gatsby eventhough he is awful

SARAH JAFFE

Honduran victims of US drug wa rstill await justice

DAN BEETON

The Egypt-Israel peace test

TAMARA WITTES

When the music dies: Azerbaijanone year after Eurovision

REBECCA VINCENT

Destroying the lai r of the budgetbalancing cretins

DEAN BA KER

Not buying the Bush library l ies

PAUL ROSENBERG

Medical care in the line of fire

UNNI KARUNAKARA

What will save Portugal?

MICHAEL MARDER

VIEWED EMAILED 7 DAYS

WHAT'S HOT

'Soldier' hacked to death in London

Al-Nakba

US admits drones killed four Americans

Man 'linked to Bos ton suspect' killed by FBI

Dawkins on religion

China Rising

The last of the Semites

Kerry urges Assad to commit to peace

Sweden riots continue after police shooting

Syria strife sends Som ali refugees on the run
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/2013514115836301175.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/05/2013521234814665777.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/20135221155817459.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013521184814703958.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135113835681245.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/general/2012/12/2012121791038231381.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/05/2013522143644212765.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/05/2013522204811334806.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135612348774619.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/05/2013522171012368683.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/michael-marder.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013571512538173.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/unni-karunakara-.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/20135149159854406.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/paul-rosenberg.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/20135511234556920.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/dean-baker.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/20135136395629832.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/rebecca-vincent-.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013519690697916.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/tamara-wittes--.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/201351312123626397.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/dan-beeton-.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013515122739553818.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/sarah-jaffe-.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/20135208473834134.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/john-v-whitbeck.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013520193129627302.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/profile/murtaza-hussain.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/05/2013515112828812589.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/20121224122215406939.html


3/11



"The world at large, and the Arab

and Muslim world in particular, is

going through world historic

changes - these changes have

produced thinkers, poets, artists,and public intellectuals at the

centre of their moral and politcial

imagination."

In Japan, Kojin Karatani, in Cuba, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, or even in the United States people like

Cornel West, whose thinking is not entirely in the European continental tradition - what about them? Where

do they fit in? Can they think - is what they do also thinking, philosophical, pertinent, perhaps, or is that also

suitable for ethnographic examinations?

The question of Eurocentricism is now entirely blase. Of course Europeans are Eurocentric and see the

world from their vantage point, and why should they not? They are the inheritors of multiple (now defunct)

empires and they still carry within them the phantom hubris of those empires and they think their particular

philosophy is "philosophy" and their particular thinking is "thinking", and everything else is - as the great

European philosopher Immanuel Levinas was wont of saying - "dancing".

The question is rather the manner in which non-European thinking can reach self-consciousness and

evident universality, not at the cost of whatever European philosophers may think of themselves for the

world at large, but for the purpose of offering alternative (complementary or contradictory) visions of reality

more rooted in the lived experiences of people in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America - counties and climes once

under the spell of the thing that calls itself "the West" but happily no more.

The trajectory of contemporary thinking around the globe is not spontaneously conditioned in our own

immediate time and disparate locations, but has a much deeper and wider spectrum that goes back to

earlier generations of thinkers ranging from Jos Marti to Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, to Aime Cesaire, W.E.B.

DuBois, Liang Qichao, Frantz Fanon, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, etc.

So the question remains why not the dignity of "philosophy" and whence the anthropological curiosity of

"ethnophilosophy"?

Let's seek the answer from Europe itself - but from the subaltern of Europe.

'The Intellectuals as a Cosmopolitan Stratum'

In his Prison Notebooks, Antonio Gramsci has a short discussion about Kant's famous phrase in

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) that is quite critical in our understanding of what it takes

for a philosopher to become universally self-conscious, to think of himself as the measure and yardstick of

globality. Gramsci's stipulation is critical here - and here is how he begins:

Kant's maxim "act in such a way that your conduct can become a norm for all men in similar

conditions" is less simple and obvious than it appears at first sight. What is meant by 'similar

conditions'?

To be sure, and as Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (the editors and translators of the English

translation of Gramsci's Prison Notebooks) note, Gramsci here in fact misquotes Kant, and that "similar

conditions" does not appear in the original text, where the German philosopher says: "I am never to act

otherwise than so that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law." This principle, called

"the categorical imperative", is in fact the very foundation of Kantian ethics.

So where Kant says "universal law", Gramsci says, "a norm for all men", and then he adds an additional

"similar conditions", which is not in the German or iginal.

That misquoting is quite critical here. Gramsci's conclusion is that

the reason Kant can say what he says and offer h is own behaviour

as measure of universal ethics is that "Kant's maxim presupposes a

single culture, a single religion, a 'world-wide' conformism... Kant's

maxim is connected with his time, with the cosmopolitan

enlightenment and the critical conception of the author. In brief, it islinked to the philosophy of the intellectuals as a cosmopolitan

stratum".

What in effect Gramsci discovers, as a southern Italian suffering in

the dungeons of European fascism, is what in Brooklyn we call

chutzpah, to think yourself the centre of universe, a self-assuredness that gives the philosopher that certain

panache and authority to think in absolutists and grand narrative terms.

Therefore the agent is the bearer of the "similar conditions" and indeed their creator. That is,

he "must" act according to a "model" which he would like to see diffused among all mankind,

according to a type of civilisation for whose coming he is working-or for whose preservation he

is "resisting" the forces that threaten its disintegration.

It is precisely that self-confidence, that self-consciousness, that audacity to think yourself the agent ofhistory that enables a thinker to think his particular thinking is "Thinking" in universal terms, and his

philosophy "Philosophy" and his city square "The Public Space", and thus he a globally recognised Public

Intellectual.

There is thus a direct and unmitigated structural link between an empire, or an imperial frame of reference,

and the presumed universality of a thinker thinking in the bosoms of that empire.

Al Jazeera English

Like 1,495,307

Recent Activity

Marina Costin Fuser recommends Open Arms

Closed Doors - Brazil.

about 3 months ago

US admits drones killed four Americans

748 people recommend this.

'Soldier' hacked to death in London

1,104 people recommend this.

Dawkins on religion

1,133 people recommend this.

Sweden riots continue after police shooting


Man 'linked to Boston suspect' killed by FBI


Facebook social plugin

Report: Canada could see indigenousuprising

Former military official s ays poverty and anger in

indigenous communities mean conditions for an

"insurgency" are ripe.

FEATURED
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/201358113923656697.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/201358113923656697.htmlhttps://www.facebook.com/help/?page=209089222464503http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2Famericas%2F2013%2F05%2F2013522143644212765.html&h=2AQGcJfYu&enc=AZPW1TaHkoHO5LYxZ0N8cJn_0tjyoQUjk96ItC6LF3lOR1jmHyCQVeaFUigKRUiJ9KLFtMKON0tTPaaUqKNb01SaI-fE-jWobRIU0QAI1S5OZ5B5iDHTMrmcl3hmbUS32RlZfO-09W1afx-ATyCw8jdANxwFtlm5z3egWpIFtPrlThDXRL4Iwbygd8ElQBvq_yDPEH69glcHa3rIQuTz-9RnXUdgqjx_EvDjR5czdKrGfSnuyvpsujJv4Eu4dgydaho&s=1http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2Feurope%2F2013%2F05%2F2013521234814665777.html&h=wAQGHNg1H&enc=AZO6oGkxtwGobUHhILzOoqyJ19vTZTiJZgX4iT9wci3mPh2pViiXE_035L57JAyZfZi9BjgEz95wO6tDZHgJLbkm0DLzpONUVQBnut-nxJpfXOqs9PnkrE0Hv4gbJI2V6vgYip02vk-1Ji1qZCdZ8Nu7gD-YTRXavtgPkCoeNI1EWvyVljpAnklBQ27etZGJoINBKcRp3C6e7rs1T1y8FpTtlF8sVaGFA1QgiTRv1Dl92MGBYeadB7q3FkjCzDJ2Fdo&s=1http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fprogrammes%2Fgeneral%2F2012%2F12%2F2012121791038231381.html&h=9AQGVpMrc&enc=AZNfISucrw1ZtJeYF5SeIX9IbvqOwWC6WUVkjqk278XHVDXZnnTMg6ALdTNdSqLmTHUZ0nuMI7X676rdZ28rSkQSM54DAqUiV4on9maiqyDP3tJZ9UjJ3ytOP1Xf972ox8T99-fH8tNr5orS08qpMavjVxntpIxCkLstv6vfaJPB25CUvPhlPOY-bCyK5m_BW0uUTKFm_2devXOb_yQBd2L-2rPjlEsfoJ7McIRcCJ4M6SFmQM71gj9sGBPD2Xj7SOE&s=1http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2Feurope%2F2013%2F05%2F2013522171012368683.html&h=NAQHCzJMx&enc=AZPnSyq0qkhmhTrQxYbWug_K3oFCNFjOEDdn4aAn1yh9Oy5zj96zP7XlCFzV7TMD0h5U9jpnlqlj6nTpmBBYhiosVrTKr94sr9X49H-B2EGEQjIxLq9gET6uFfHy-hkOjYubO3JE1qQhkuAeOVdaZS-gWWX9zXUmDRmHjzA8PVYBoEwNNdJEUjqb-vC6GwPLrcTUsN0pt8PSz5j43OT62HLTnsfOnx2kxxMU0R3ezdOT_SesP8Z-puxOcf2R6hLl8OM&s=1http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2Famericas%2F2013%2F05%2F2013522204811334806.html&h=iAQGX8Onr&enc=AZNUL1w0YBEDjBbtAKX6vkKsTNkSUScp-v9Gx65AH0042wqXZL9zwFBNarsj826PtJMaBUyQYtFLDLb0lA3SL27CNElfzhUHKNkzxIrUavliuCcNzYu7AKpfIjdD7QMn8q0iazD2dr3t4jnO9oJHMpVYYFNz_wSlGeiYJHmfvBKy4TavFw5xK6IOgq_oxuyc003kbZUEezFsjtRe73hErYBOYXkmq4BjMks3L_WNPnxlK3jW8torvd3Nzer2y8sBSC8&s=1http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fprogrammes%2Fviewfinder%2F2012%2F12%2F2012122383251457242.html&h=8AQE0cP_Y&enc=AZOFIhFpslVveUF2t-i4QY7oiIPNtf_P1eSqnTJ6mSVcpOKm-VHTIaaUxePWAu3mEyoFxgmvdxv5CrQrwM7uUumAXpfTk_aaDe9Usdyj3-qgLA2dr7i4wFm0HtDW50Kav8mMz1G1Lpq0ruVFJBwjgipa2yoOSOlcQ9wXfVaxqd0qAegWdnVk1EGrHLrMwimwV34c54Z7_EIjavVdd9wdMX6tNwNiq3qWvsGeFzjpJ7knBWW9-dWxOzl8EFRY6F7xFg4&s=1https://www.facebook.com/marina.sedovahttps://www.facebook.com/help/?page=209089222464503http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2Famericas%2F2013%2F05%2F2013522143644212765.html&h=wAQGHNg1H&enc=AZMEmXijGm-5-GJszaiA7t-1YdbEc4bPS7hNKw1-EzeqoMETVP_zE3t1lOVQseBTtHabvQFzF_nhbkJ3gaD0D2V_bO6VQw6sqXvpXa1mOCXqI8kiXMNlZuEcxYPBe4u4weT3Gymy2RFXv7qMLuo9W0cVMwQBUh3tLpzPclQQAbpX_tUOSSP4tBOEs5wdmqWQz5MRddg0A4_LR4WJglG1CwWXio9f5tv4JOaoWrCPd95yKsmaXgFhlrPx_P8eu8M9MMo&s=1http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2Feurope%2F2013%2F05%2F2013521234814665777.html&h=VAQGuBwXs&enc=AZN3wMVOfVa85hB7gOg8Syleh2uDHVTaxvVTAPTwiolqwyXtpkYJm7Hs1MWtiZQ7lM9kAleTIKwWD7V8u9TrJRnyz0DgNK8CTPgfInwnbU3VmO_g_r4_qSaxG70Z_s-ZAOJHD3GV1Oc4r30jdmIYDHvDkxSM46hHXxh8o2JuVVLJpPE2U5EXYcPTwyJCMlOKz2i-bjsSOu2zKNcAO2w8-K0eYsTnNNc7RtuuD4Fw3dTcrt9O1-JDA8Ue4aSp9EwEh5o&s=1http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fprogrammes%2Fgeneral%2F2012%2F12%2F2012121791038231381.html&h=MAQElGHLq&enc=AZOIS-RH2dxThlZNEuHVomv6BXziH1_Yc8qDsw0z8WTqftG9aEbdqtR3WbJHiG2IEKxfOnK61NHFRDs4PhE_noI4Zl50ElvTDqhZd53Jc3u9q8gZi-JYvZ-PNfCtrkBpaKc1nZd2p_Ddkt0NXCZ9gz7nZd4JoTUEKfQ1ZEXVv_JBZh7K4l-o0pvD8koTt6ByjgKZQx75T0egUzXB61UICozA8wDNmzdU0NCgu9jUmStlJVID2w84zq5evkI-EA3GX_A&s=1http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2Feurope%2F2013%2F05%2F2013522171012368683.html&h=wAQGHNg1H&enc=AZPUF-KQm4DzSHuug5iDba19FbDZTKvc0u-pKv7mZHpErwiAlTwO0ZR9yez35RX88L5W3w-T_cQOeg5K38qLQymgN4imX1Dl3EKZvdegP5XnkrEsUR4pipvhKQJ37K2mZGUVwbRbtjKjJWh9kWLxfo-K081ToSejz48UWfqXuC1rFv3G9Wje-h2AasuDQmvwXrhJe2AIIU0AvD7wUY8g3A1ijLN78yzozsiWsU_w9OcUbxalqpWweIuwyqZPIT73_3I&s=1http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2Famericas%2F2013%2F05%2F2013522204811334806.html&h=5AQESSJ-x&enc=AZPEEkLlWycq0_6XstsrTFssiczfCS7Bbortt1O-i2HJmo9Dw2cDOYBuyiTNJcqefpka-boCBlnEFs9qVtg7F4dYToky0D01LN0uZ7rvDQyUON_zjYOeaAaSCj-Ec89pO9HFMn4RbEc5eH_GV03rJi5_z0Ly5ToxGB8HxPmktlNtoBSavqK7p_qVyhThjtI-JP4nRM_LaR7f0bNPHiQGDxb0Lvq_kjK8e6hsOKvJWRQadpr3saznBzJHMNZi6iha6FA&s=1https://www.facebook.com/marina.sedovahttps://www.facebook.com/aljazeerahttps://www.facebook.com/aljazeera


4/11



[?][?]

[?][?]

OPINIONATED TWEETSOPINIONATED TWEETS

INFLUENTIAL TWEEPSINFLUENTIAL TWEEPS

Source: Al Jazeera

TweetTweet 1,491

As all other people, Europeans are per fectly entitled to their own self-centrism.

The imperial hubris that once enabled that Eurocentricism and still produces

the infomercials of the sort we read in Al Jazeera for Zizek are the phantom

memories of the time that "the West" had assured confidence and a sense of

its own universalism and globality, or as Gramsci put it, "to a type of civilisation

for whose coming he is working".

But that globality is no more - people from every clime and continent are up and about claiming their own

cosmopolitan worldliness and with it their innate ability to think beyond the confinements of that

Eurocentricism, which to be sure is still entitled to its phantom pleasures of thinking itself the centre of the

universe. The Gramscian superimposed "similar conditions" are now emerging in multiple cites of the

liberated humanity.

The world at large, and the Arab and Muslim world in particular, is going through world historic changes -

these changes have produced thinkers, poets, artists, and public intellectuals at the centre of their moral

and politcial imagination - all thinking and acting in terms at once domestic to their immediate geography

and yet global in its consequences.

Compared to those liberating tsunamis now turning the world upside down, cliche-ridden assumption about

Europe and its increasingly provincialised philosophical pedigree is a tempest in the cup. Reduced to its

own fair share of the humanity at large, and like all other continents and climes, Europe has much to teach

the world, but now on a far more leveled and democratic playing field, where its philosophy is European

philosophy not "Philosophy", its music European music not "Music", and no infomercial would be necessary

to sell its public intellectuals as "Public Intellectuals".

Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at

Columbia University in New York. Among his most recent books is The World of Persian Literary

Humanism (2012).

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's

editorial policy.

TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE

People

Antonio Gramsci

Hamid Dabashi

Mahatma Gandhi

Michel Foucault

Judith Butler

Chantal Mouffe

Geoffrey Nowell Smith

Victoria Camps

Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze

Shawn Levy

Liang Qichao

Michel Kilo

Jean-Luc Nancy

Cornel West

Roberto Fernandez Retamar

Azmi Bishara

Frantz Fanon

Henry Odera Oruka

Jalal Al-Azm

Souleymane Bachir Diagne , V

al-Din al-Afghani

Simon Critchley

Abdallah Laroui

Jean-Paul SartreQuintin Hoare

Hannah Arendt

Peter Sloterdijk

Fawwaz Traboulsi

Country

United States

China

Brazil

Australia

Germany

Belgium

France

Italy

Slovenia

United Kingdom

Spain

India

Organisation

Columbia University in New York

Recommend 25,902 people recommend this. Be the first of your friends.
http://www.aljazeera.com/category/organisation/columbia-university-in-new-yorkhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/indiahttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/spainhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/united-kingdomhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/sloveniahttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/italyhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/francehttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/belgiumhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/germanyhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/australiahttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/brazilhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/chinahttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/country/united-stateshttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/fawwaz-traboulsihttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/peter-sloterdijkhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/hannah-arendthttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/quintin-hoarehttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/jean-paul-sartrehttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/abdallah-larouihttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/simon-critchleyhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/al-din-al-afghanihttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/souleymane-bachir-diagne-,-vhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/jalal-al-azmhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/henry-odera-orukahttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/frantz-fanonhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/azmi-bisharahttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/roberto-fernandez-retamarhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/cornel-westhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/jean-luc-nancyhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/michel-kilohttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/liang-qichaohttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/shawn-levyhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/emmanuel-chukwudi-ezehttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/victoria-campshttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/geoffrey-nowell-smithhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/chantal-mouffehttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/judith-butlerhttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/michel-foucaulthttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/mahatma-gandhihttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/hamid-dabashihttp://www.aljazeera.com/category/person/antonio-gramscihttp://www.amazon.com/The-World-Persian-Literary-Humanism/dp/0674066715http://twitter.com/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Fopinion%2F2013%2F01%2F2013114142638797542.htmlhttps://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Fopinion%2F2013%2F01%2F2013114142638797542.html&text=Can%20non-Europeans%20think%3F&tw_p=tweetbutton&url=http%3A%2F%2Faje.me%2FRWETN6&via=AJEnglishhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#


5/11



RevisedGuantanamo force-feed policyexposed

Al Jazeera's exclusivepublishing of a key

Guantanamo prison

military document lays

bare the brutality of

force-feeding.

Report: Canadacould seeindigenousuprising

Former military officialsays poverty and anger

in indigenous

communities mean

conditions for an

"insurgency" are ripe.

China Rising

A four-part series tha t

gives a rare ins ight into

the country on the move,

with history in tow.

Al-Nakba

Series on the

Palestinian 'catastrophe'

of 1948 that led to

dispossession andconflict that still endures .

FEATURED ON AL JAZEERA

Content on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole

responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no

consideration to use, re use, delete or publish comments, in acc ordance with Community Rules & Guidelines andTerms and Conditions.

878 comments

Leave a message...

BestBest CommunityCommunity ShareShare

Junkets

It's very interesting. Reading a book on Indian Philosophy recently, I was struck how 'Indian'

thought had been through very similar phases to 'Western' thought, and encountered very

similar epistemological problems en route. Some Buddhist thinkers, for instance, took the line of

Hume'sskepticism against Hindu monistic or dualistic ideas and I got a distinct sense of deja vu

while reading them. It's important to get outside your own traditional world-view and see things

from the point of view of 'the other', because the differences are more on the surface than in the

depths. I think we are all asking the same basic questions, the parameters of which are

determined by the overall context of our lives in the "incubator, house and hearse" which is our

universe, and we come up with different answers depending on our cultural background.

Reading, for example, Vasamazulu Mutwa's "Indaba My Children", based on traditional Bantu

myths and legends, it's obvious that there is tremendous philosophising going on in the African

tradition, but it's not presented in a European way. The basic questions posed are the same, the

difference lies in the method of exposition.

154

c indy wilmore

i agree. i think the title of this paper should be "can europeans think."

104

burger1376

Hi Cindy,

Actually, your post is a bit arrogant. I think the point of the article was to get

people to not be so self centered. However, it isn't only Europeans who are

Euro-centric. Many Chinese are Sino-centric, many Arabs are Arab-centric ,

many Indians are Indian-centric and so on. An example of Arab-centric people or

Muslim-centric people can be found all over this comment section. Many people

here think Muslims do no wrong, muslim culture is sepreme, and everyone

should follow or at least appologize to muslims while ignore muslim wrong

doings in the world. Your comment kind of shows that you didn't really

understand the point of the article.

116 1

WWMD

I think the succinct meat of the matter is that humans are programmed tobe tribal/ethnocentric. It's a survival mechanism that should be accepted

by Marxist philosophers rather than denounced as bourgeois.

42

ibne quresh

Have ou an stats to rove that a Muslim think "Muslims do no wron "?

44
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769262206http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/aboutus/2011/01/20111168582648190.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/201358113923656697.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/201358113923656697.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135113835681245.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135612348774619.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/201358113923656697.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135113835681245.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135612348774619.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/201358113923656697.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135113835681245.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135612348774619.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135612348774619.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135113835681245.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135612348774619.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135113835681245.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/201358113923656697.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2013/05/201358152317954140.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/aboutus/2011/01/20111168582648190.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/aboutus/2011/01/201111681520872288.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-776904293http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770913380http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769262206http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768600526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769262206http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768600526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135612348774619.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/05/20135113835681245.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/05/201358113923656697.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/humanrights/2013/05/201358152317954140.html


6/11



Being Muslims we despise our masses over their oddities. Islam teaches

the Muslims to be answerable to God, instead of patting or defending

each other of their maldeeds. Please, never generalize any community.

For your argument that a Muslim think " Muslim culture is supereme" and

"everyone should follow the Muslims", i think you have overlooked such

tendency of all the other corners.

16

Mark Fergerson

As WWMD says below, "the succinct meat of the matter is that humans

are programmed to be tribal/ethnocentric", but there's gristle in that meat,

also found in the article, that "As all other people, Europeans are perfectly

entitled to their own self-centrism".

I argue that they are NOT so entitled- no group is. That self-centrism is

the root of all evil; it allows us to cast anyone not a member of "our" group

as "the other", not entitled to consideration as a human being, a candidate

for exploitation, slavery or extermination.The West's philosophical

development has been away from such centrisms, from the self-

conscious arrogances of theocracies toward democracies, from

patriarchy toward equality, from racism toward recognition of the

essential humanity of all peoples, and the same trend is blatantly evident

elsewhere.

Yes, the point is to get people to recognize and hopefully reject their self-

centrism, by pointing it out to a particular audience segment, those that

claim the European philosophical heritage. As other commenters have

pointed out, there really isn't such a thing since all its high points can be

found in "ethnophilosophies" from India, China, and so on.

I just hope that others will recognize the same fault in themselves and

take steps to do the same.

14

Be n

Let him say what he wants to say but the highest level of philophers are

people who claim they are God ( or the Supreme One). All of us knows

that majority of Europeans are Christians and they worship Jesus asGod. Jesus was a Jew, he was not european. Most of Western Laws are

based on the Morality of the Bible. The Bible were written by Jews not

Europeans. Now Buddhist worship Sidharta Gautama Buddha/

Sakyamuni Buddha as the Highest Supreme Being, Buddha was etnically

an Indian, he was not European. Nearly a Billion Hindus worship Krisna

which they consider as the Incarnation of the Most Supreme God, Krisna

is Indian. Looks like God only incarnates into Indians and Jews. Therefore

only Indians and Jews have the conciousness and genetic capability of

understanding the infinite God, not Europeans. Thats my logic.

18 1

Selmo Gliksman

good comment! and what do you think if i said that everything you saidabout the arab-centric or muslim-centric could be thought as well for the

jews?I mean european jews (ashkenazi)... they also think their way of

thinking is superior to other people including north african and oriental

jews

6

Richard Nogin

Well Matt, now that you have a sense of superiority over Cindy, do you

wish to bind and urinate on her too?

8 1

SweetWill iam

Thank you for summarizing the point of the article. I missed it.2

andrew galea

Very clear and concise. You have a very good point. Well done!

1
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-775092773http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771753142http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-775584523http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-775258650http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771045642http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-773469379http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#


7/11



Chenyang Li

While you certainly have a point generally speaking this does not apply to

me. I am Chinese but my views are not Sino-centric. I simply wish people

to consider Chinese philosophy and culture on an equal footing with the

European ones. I'm looking for equality, not Chinese superiority. Yet

Western academia in the general sense (with some exceptions) doesn't

seem to really recognise this.

It's true that everyone has some ethnocentric tendencies, we are only

human after all, not perfect beings. But objectively there is certainly an

inequality here. For instance in Chinese universities European philosophyfeatures much more significantly than Chinese philosophy in European

universities. What you describe is how the literate civilisations of Eurasia

were like before the age of European colonialism, imperialism and

expansion. Now European philosophy and culture clearly dominates the

entire globe.

Truth Hurts

a lovely post for sufferers of acute Europe envy.

57 3

ChuckRamone

Reducing all criticism to envy or jealousy: the reasoning of a child.73

Lwantale

Give me a break! That is the delusion most of you people live under and

use whenever you come under criticism. Acute Europe envy, my foot!!

48

cindy wilmore

whatever.

22

Hind Abyad

Truth Hurts!13

morrisminor

Sure, those Arabs are great thinkers, for the 12th century

29 1

Lewis

That's not helpful in the slightest and actual insulting.

10

Bodge Fodge

Pshhhawwwggghhh

Jamal Locke

"I think we are all asking the same basic questions"

There's really only one important question, something like "how am I and the people I

care about going to continue to live securely?" Pretty much all of what humans do, even

things that don't seem related like art & entertainment, are connected to that question.

Stupid things like war & aggression are an example of misunderstanding that question.

17

moreman

Surely the question should be "How can we all best live together?".

17

Jamal Locke

We can best live together by recognizing each other's independence. All

human engineered calamities have one thing in common and it's when

one group of people starts to obsess about things that other people do

that have no effect on them.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771289714http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-775027930http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770476777http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771289714http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768600526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770476777http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769262206http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-778262415http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769262206http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-772642487http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769262206http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771332689http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770096607http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770549381http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770096607http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770371431http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770096607http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770699602http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770096607http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771189090http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769262206http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770096607http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770667861http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-818083338http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#


8/11



3

Ben

Let him say what he wants to say but the highest level of philophers are people who

claim they are God ( or the Supreme One). All of us knows that majority of Europeans

are Christians and they worship Jesus as God. Jesus was a Jew, he was not european.

Most of Western Laws are based on the Morality of the Bible. The Bible were written by

Jews not Europeans. Now Buddhist worship Sidharta Gautama Buddha/ Sakyamuni

Buddha as the Highest Supreme Being, Buddha was etnically an Indian, he was not

European. Nearly a Billion Hindus worship Krisna which they consider as the Incarnation

of the Most Supreme God, Krisna is Indian. Looks like God only incarnates into Indiansand Jews. Therefore only Indians and Jews have the conciousness and genetic

capability of understanding the infinite God, not Europeans. Thats my logic.

3

jon77 6

The majority of Europeans are not really Christians anymore and the ones who

are, are not very religious. Also, most western laws are not based on the bible.

As for your logic, it's silly.

28

lee

Hate to break it to you Ben, but if Jesus was born in Bethelehem as rumoured?

Jesus was Palestinian.

Whatever religion one may or may not practice is irrelevant to their nationality.

16

lee

in reply to Disparshun:

Religion:

The service & worship of God or the supernatural.

Commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance.

Nationality:

People generally acquire a nationality by birth within a particular country's

territory.

Judaism:

A monotheistic religion originating in the Hebrew Bible & explored in later

texts such as the Talmud. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be

the expression of the covenantal relationship God established with the

Children of Israel (that would be Israel, as in a person, not Israel, as in

a country).

Judiasm is a religion, it is not a nationality.

13

Disparishun

Of course, Jew was his nationality. Also his religion. How ironic is it that

it is at the foot of this very article that you reproduce the famous European

religion::ethnicity split in the usual effort to deny nationhood to the Jews.

3

Fp Chan

The Chinese just bought the right to claim Jesus as Chinese. They gave

Christians, Jews and Muslims free imitation milk powder in exchange for

that right.

2

Blut Gelt

Jesus was Palestinian? LOL! Hahahahaa.

Technically, Jesus was Roman, as Palestine Roman at the time.

However, Jesus probably identified more with his Jewish identity than his

"Roman" or "Palestinian" identity. Just stating the obvious.

2

see more
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771120526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771334023http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771120526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-772883901http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771120526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-773012723http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771120526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771474586http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771120526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771581924http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771044151http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771120526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771044151http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771138485http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768600526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771044151http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#


9/11



Sorry, but Jesus was a Jew and was totally not a Palestinian as we know

them today

3 1

Junkets

Since I am of the school which says we should have stayed pagan, what am I to

say to your 'logic'? Christianity was a religion which was largely imported into

Europe at the expense of the indigenous culture of Europe. The form it eventually

came to take emerged out of the collapsed Roman Empire. That is the form of

the Roman Church. As Adam Ardrey says, "Rome had ruled for centuries. When

Rome fell, many forms of Christianity vied for power, but only one inherited the

old framework and structures of the Empire and with a single-minded

ruthlessness submerged all other versions of Christianity to win the day.

Arianism, Pelagianism, like the old way,... retreated into the shadows of history.

The Dark Ages were about to begin." Christianity has been a blight on the

European landscape ever since.

5

Christopher

According to your "logic" Ben, you could also conclude that only Indians and

Jews are arrogant and delusional enough to believe that God incarnates itself via

their genetic material and writes about it.

3

Scott Craig

True. Numerous schools of philosophy which challenged each other's theories of ethics

and epistemology, developed in India. Similarly, the development of systematic

philosophy with multiple rival schools of thought developed in China. The European

philosophers were influenced principally by the richest tradition of philosophy in the

ancient world which was developed in Greece. But let's be honest, the Europeans have

equalled or surpassed all other traditions of philosophy in scope, breadth of analysis and

depth of scrutiny.

2 1

Tim

I agree. As of now 114 other people also agree. But (unless I have missed a post) none

seem to pointed out that you are disagreeing with the author. The author was saying

that European thought is Eurocentric. For example, the author suggests that Kant's

categorical imperative is too universal. In effect, Kant presumes that we are all from a

single culture. The author was suggesting that we turn to other traditions in order to

avoid such universalizing assumptions. If you are correct, then other traditions are

equally "universalistic ". That's fine, but this means that the author's main point misfires

badly. I agree with your comment, but disagree strongly with the article since I am a fan

of a priori philosophers like Spinoza.

1

Junkets

Well, yes, I certainly had misgivings about what the author says. Things are not

so easily separated as he seems to suggest. Whether that's due to traditions

influencing each other, or because, when one starts to think deeply about life, the

same questions keep popping up, I don't know. I do know, for example, that

Spinoza was influenced by Ibn Arabi, but he had his own approach which was

culturally specific. His use of 'geometrical' methods of argument, for example. So

perhaps it's a bit of both.

1

afroblazingguns

I'm inclined to ask if non-European women can think considering we are barely mentioned (save

for Spivak) in this piece.

87

Jana Veronika

well. may this is field misunderstood by westerners...

19

Ben

Let him say what he wants to say but the highest level of philophers are people who

claim they are God ( or the Supreme One). All of us knows that majority of Europeans
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768621457http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771046613http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768621457http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768630870http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768621457http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-774265833http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-774639105http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768600526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-774265833http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768600526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-775030063http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771044151http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-772616741http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771044151http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771080715http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771120526http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771334023http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#


10/11



. , .

Most of Western Laws are based on the Morality of the Bible. The Bible were written by

Jews not Europeans. Now Buddhist worship Sidharta Gautama Buddha/ Sakyamuni

Buddha as the Highest Supreme Being, Buddha was etnically an Indian, he was not

European. Nearly a Billion Hindus worship Krisna which they consider as the Incarnation

of the Most Supreme God, Krisna is Indian. Looks like God only incarnates into Indians

and Jews. Therefore only Indians and Jews have the conciousness and genetic

capability of understanding the infinite God, not Europeans. Thats my logic.

1

NISHTHAR IDROOS

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

Plato

48

efbya

In today's context, The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be

governed by Sharia.

44

lingum

Or might it be the US criminal justice system?

46

lee

in reply to efbya:

I'm Western born, have lived in the US & the ME.

There's no more wrong with Sharia Law than there is US law when those

laws are distorted & manipulated by those in power who choose to do so.

It depends on which country one lives in, contrary to your somewhat

fantastical conviction that all Muslim countries are somehow one & the

the same.

As to a 'US criminal justice system', today? It's a parody.

I'll take the Sharia Law where I live for the moment, thanks. It's working

just fine for me.

39

efbya

What do you prefer, US criminal justice system or Sharia? You should

ask this question to the crowd of people in your country who're thronging

the US embassy every day for a visa.

36

efbya

>>I'm Western born, have lived in the US & the ME.

------

@lee

You're Western born because your parents fled the oppressive Chinese

system in favor of the Western system. :))

15

Debraj Guhabiswas

Its still much better than sharia. No comparison at all.

9

lingum

Sort of like the caste system in which some human beings are not

considered full human beings. Suggest you brush up on the laws of

Manu.

2

Al Khal il

Any learned person who actually looked up the information about Sharia would

gladly prefer Sharia to any other available system of law we have known so far.

Go get yourself some real knowledge and then rant. Cheers to you Mr.

EnterFromBackYouAnimal...
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768920106http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769290282http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770657495http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-771110071http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769081727http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770657495http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://disqus.com/ajsso-43eed89d32b059e99e4c70b9bace408c/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769081727http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-770648187http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769081727http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769089921http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769081727http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769624859http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768920106http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769081727http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768598411http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768920106http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-768598411http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#


11/11


Watch Live Video Podcasts RSS Mobile Follow on Twitter

NEWS

Africa

Americas

Asia-Pacific

Central & South Asia

Europe

Middle East

Sport

IN DEPTH

Opinion

Features

Spotlight

In Pictures

Blogs

Interactive

PROGRAMMES

The Stream

Witness

Inside Story

Inside Story Americas

Listening Post

People & Power

Fault Lines

Artscape

The Frost Interview

101 East

Counting The Cost

Talk to Al Jazeera

Empire

The Cafe

Al Jazeera World

South2North

Inside Syria

WATCH

Live

On Demand

Podcasts

Mobile

Broadcast Schedule

Weather

Hotel/Partners

Search

MORE

About Us

Press Office

Work for us

AJ Center for Studies

AJ Balkans

Transparency Unit

Comm unity Rules

Terms & Conditions

Load more comments

What's this?

An i ncreasi ngly unchec ked survei llance

state

I think that most constitutional

lawyers would argue that there is no

constitutional expectation of privacy in

Hezbollah plays its hand in battle for

Syria

Hezbollah are honourable

heroes. We are all very proud of them.

Al-Nakba - S peci al se ri es

...in about 6 months from

now "the holly nation" will cause III world war.

These days the world is witnessing

Why sanctions on Iran are not working

Too bad your ad hominem is false

and not true. While I respect the Shah for the

patriot he was, I was born after the

21 1

Matt Fitt

Ah, yes... the virtuous Sharia legal system. I've seen some of the videos.

It seemed rather efficient, when the sword was adequately sharpened. It

also appeared rather disgusting and barbaric. The sort of system that

might work well in a brutal totalitarian dystopia... but not really such a

good thing for anyone who actually values personal and intellectual

freedom... or equality, science, rationality, truth, democracy, dissent,

humor, etc.

What a sick joke.

48 1

Al Khal il

You flunk, with a great big ZERO in knowledge. But I will give a point out of

ten for having a clean slate (in your head, of course).

12 1
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://ajenglish.disqus.com/httpwwwaljazeeracomindepthopinion2013012013114142638797542html/latest.rsshttp://disqus.com/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769388805http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769615389http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769290282http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#comment-769388805http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://redirect.disqus.com/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Fopinion%2F2013%2F05%2F2013515121958344336.html%3AxntWT_pIYCrH9QeKKIdYxrdHpz0&imp=8j3k0tfk9c7bq&forum_id=609160&forum=ajenglish&thread_id=1026838839&major_version=metadata&thread=1290275347&zone=internal_discoveryhttp://redirect.disqus.com/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Fopinion%2F2013%2F05%2F2013515121958344336.html%3AxntWT_pIYCrH9QeKKIdYxrdHpz0&imp=8j3k0tfk9c7bq&forum_id=609160&forum=ajenglish&thread_id=1026838839&major_version=metadata&thread=1290275347&zone=internal_discoveryhttp://redirect.disqus.com/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fprogrammes%2Fspecialseries%2F2013%2F05%2F20135612348774619.html%3ASKay0X5gqyvG-hdLnBxJ2dwnesw&imp=8j3k0tfk9c7bq&forum_id=609160&forum=ajenglish&thread_id=1026838839&major_version=metadata&thread=1271979012&zone=internal_discoveryhttp://redirect.disqus.com/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fprogrammes%2Fspecialseries%2F2013%2F05%2F20135612348774619.html%3ASKay0X5gqyvG-hdLnBxJ2dwnesw&imp=8j3k0tfk9c7bq&forum_id=609160&forum=ajenglish&thread_id=1026838839&major_version=metadata&thread=1271979012&zone=internal_discoveryhttp://redirect.disqus.com/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Ffeatures%2F2013%2F05%2F2013520103332211192.html%3AdOyti3uA3XuoUPnDp_l25OhDxV4&imp=8j3k0tfk9c7bq&forum_id=609160&forum=ajenglish&thread_id=1026838839&major_version=metadata&thread=1301481473&zone=internal_discoveryhttp://redirect.disqus.com/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Ffeatures%2F2013%2F05%2F2013520103332211192.html%3AdOyti3uA3XuoUPnDp_l25OhDxV4&imp=8j3k0tfk9c7bq&forum_id=609160&forum=ajenglish&thread_id=1026838839&major_version=metadata&thread=1301481473&zone=internal_discoveryhttp://redirect.disqus.com/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Fopinion%2F2013%2F05%2F2013515112828812589.html%3A7x5QPD0yXc9Gt2a1XWziZMQZEHg&imp=8j3k0tfk9c7bq&forum_id=609160&forum=ajenglish&thread_id=1026838839&major_version=metadata&thread=1302029716&zone=internal_discoveryhttp://redirect.disqus.com/url?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Findepth%2Fopinion%2F2013%2F05%2F2013515112828812589.html%3A7x5QPD0yXc9Gt2a1XWziZMQZEHg&imp=8j3k0tfk9c7bq&forum_id=609160&forum=ajenglish&thread_id=1026838839&major_version=metadata&thread=1302029716&zone=internal_discoveryhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013114142638797542.html#http://www.aljazeera.com/aboutus/2011/01/20111168582648190.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/aboutus/2011/01/201111681520872288.htmlhttp://transparency.aljazeera.net/http://balkans.aljazeera.com/http://studies.aljazeera.net/enhttp://www.aljazeera.com/aboutus/2009/10/2009103081456514230.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/pressoffice/http://www.aljazeera.com/aboutushttp://www.aljazeera.com/Services/Search/Default.aspxhttp://partners.aljazeera.net/services/hotelfinder.aspxhttp://www.aljazeera.com/Weatherhttp://www.aljazeera.com/Services/Schedule/ProgramSchedule.aspxhttp://www.aljazeera.com/mobilehttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/general/2008/09/2008915153339521328.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/videohttp://www.aljazeera.com/watch_nowhttp://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidesyria/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/South2North/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeraworld/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/thecafe/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/empire/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/frostinterview/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/artscape/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/faultlines/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestoryamericas/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/http://stream.aljazeera.com/http://www.aljazeera.com/programmeshttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/http://blogs.aljazeera.com/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/http://www.aljazeera.com/sporthttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/http://www.aljazeera.com/http://twitter.com/ajenglishhttp://www.aljazeera.com/mobilehttp://www.aljazeera.com/Services/Rss/?PostingId=2007731105943979989http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/general/2008/09/2008915153339521328.htmlhttp://www.aljazeera.com/videohttp://www.aljazeera.com/watch_nowhttp://www.aljazeera.com/

Date post:	08-Aug-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	gli-stronzi-bambini
View:	214 times
Download:	0 times

Can Non-Europeans Think_ - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Documents