[MD] The social and intellectual strongholds.

[gav]

well....
the charge of cultural imperialism could be levelled at you bo, with some justification

the islamic culture is the source of much intellectual value. a lot of mathematics for instance. 

ever read rumi? ever heard of the sufi order. there is more intellectual quality there than in your posts bo, and mine.

the islamic culture has retained its mythological lineage. the pop songs in afghanistan are very often very old poems - reinterpreted in modern context. rumi is among them, but often the author is not even known - they are a part of a long oral tradition that we 'christians' (we are in reality nothing really - just lost) have lost touch with long ago. christianity as it is practised today seems crude and banal and supremacist compared with the living theology of islam. 

you see we think of religion in terms of what you believe in - this is the mistake. it is not about belief, it is about action. what good believing in god if you don't act god out? in islam they still recognise that religion is about how you live your life - it is meaningless outside this context. islam is still largely devotional; christianity has become a confused ideological caricature in comparison.

the radicalisation (real and propagandised) of islam has been created by western imperialism. i won't go into detail about that now but it follows the same logic of my last mail to dave - it is about power, the logic of power. a lot of islamic nations are in geopolitically strategic locations...but any intellectually aware person in the west should know this stuff already (so i will presume you do).

spirituality is the culmination of intellect. it is not at odds with it. this is obvious when you look at it - for what motivates our intellectual journey other than a search for truth, which is to say 'god' or 'self'.

my friend michael worked with a devout islamic refugee at the city council. michael is the brightest guy i know and he found this fellow to be a very bright light indeed. he had fled the regime (his brother translated for the american army) but he was not fleeing islam - quite the opposite. the oppressive situation in islamic countries is to do with power - religion is used as a tool to oppress, as with the gun, the media etc.

you are familiar with orwell? the opposite is the truth in totalitarian times.... (our times). if the orthodoxy promulgates the view of islam as dangerous and intellectually regressive - then the opposite is more likely true.

in relation to my words - you either didn't read or ignored my reply to platt. i used 'interior' as a linguistic convention. it is the abstract nature of this level that is key (where is imagination? - nowhere - not in head or out there - it is an abstract plane).

all the best
gav

ps jo campbell is very instructive about religion....the intellectual treasure in mythology - which is what authentic religion is - is essential in order to grasp the higher intellectual truths. it is the world of symbol of paradoxical logic (as opposed to aristotelian). 
symbol means to 'throw together'; a symbol conveys the dynamic meaning/quality of opposites combined - reason cannot do this.

the irony is that if we dismiss religion we dismiss myth which is of the highest intellectual value.