Islam’s everyday dignity can flip into explosive rage during upheaval.

Evidence

There is something in the religious culture of Islam which inspired, in even the humblest peasant or peddler, a dignity and a courtesy toward others never exceeded and rarely equalled in other civilizations. And yet, in moments of upheaval and disruption, when the deeper passions are stirred, this dignity and courtesy toward others can give way to an explosive mixture of rage and hatred which impels even the government of an ancient and civilized country—even the spokesman of a great spiritual and ethical religion—to espouse kidnapping and assassination, and try to find, in the life of their Prophet, approval and indeed precedent for such actions. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1584 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islamic culture’s famed dignity can erupt into rage-driven violence in upheaval — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1584; Islamophobic provocation aims to elicit rage that confirms Muslim stereotypes; Muslim-world upheavals are driven by social and economic factors, not by Islam — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam: How the Media and the…, 73

Broader Connections

• Islamic culture’s famed dignity can erupt into rage-driven violence in upheaval #corroborates (0.95) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1584