Wisdom 1944

As Marshal Lyautey said, "The Moslem world is like a drum. If you tap it anywhere it reverberates over its whole surface."

The Moslem world stretches from Casablanca to Singapore, through to China. This Moslem world is in the process of a political re-awakening and a cultural renaissance. We see it in the Pakistan movement in India and in the intellectual movements in Damascus and Cairo Universities. It is very important that England and France should try to make their policies go in a parallel way and that the present inter Departmental divergencies that one sees in the Middle East should be unified and that there should be a unified English service dealing with the Arab-speaking world. From the Moslem point of view Palestine contains the third holy city—Jerusalem ranks only after Medina and Mecca—and it is the keystone of the arch between the Moslem world in Asia and in Africa. We must remember that fact. Much depends on the wisdom we may show in, these matters.

MP William Astor, June 6, 1944


Unfortunately, some of this is still in the hearts and minds of too many politicians and diplomats, as well as media people.

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