Toronto Sun on a Roll

SALIM MANSUR
"... it is futile to engage with drivers of the perpetual anger machine -- the political leaders, intellectuals, religious heads and demagogues -- as they rush head-long to go over the precipice of history into oblivion. Indeed, the sooner this occurs the safer the world will become.

Hence, instead of dignifying outrage by striving to find any merit in what has led to the burning of Pope effigies in the Arab-Muslim world, I am reminded of another conversation worth recalling that took place in Baghdad in 1258.

It occurred following the fall of Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire and the seat of the Islamic caliphate, to Mongol armies led by Hulaqu Khan. The conqueror demanded eminent Muslim scholars of the time present themselves to him in Baghdad, and then he posed to them the question: "Which is preferable (according to your Islamic laws) the disbelieving ruler who is just or the Muslim ruler who is unjust?"

The assembled scholars sat in stunned silence, aghast at the question posed. Then one among them -- history records a man by the name of Riazuddin Ali ibn Tawas -- arose and signed a reply which read: "The disbelieving ruler who is just."

There is much here to pause and reflect upon in the exchange between a conqueror and a scholar that occurred in Baghdad over eight centuries ago.

One thing is certain from observing the contemporary Arab-Muslim world, it suffers from an excess of Muslim rulers who are unjust and religious leaders who never understood that faith without reason is as arid and life-denying as deserts of inner Arabia."