Winston Churchill and the Islamic World: Orientalism, Empire and Diplomacy in the Middle East (International Library of Twentieth Century History)

Winston Churchill began his career as a colonial policeman in the North-West borderlands of India, and this experience was the beginning of his long relationship with the Islamic world. Overturning the widely-accepted consensus that Churchill was indifferent to, and even contemptuous of, matters concerning the Middle East, this book unravels Churchill's nuanced understanding of the edges of the British Empire. Warren Dockter analyses the future Prime Minister's experiences of the East, including his work as Colonial Under-Secretary in the early 1900s, his relations with the Ottomans and conduct during the Dardanelles Campaign of 1915-16, his arguments with David Lloyd-George over Turkey, and his pragmatic support of Syria and Saudi Arabia during World War II. Challenging the popular depiction of Churchill as an ignorant imperialist when it came to the Middle East, Dockter suggests that his policy making was often progressive when compared to the orientalist prejudices of many of his contemporaries.


http://www.amazon.com/Winston-Churchill-Islamic-World-International/dp/1780768184

http://www.historytoday.com/chris-wrigley/churchill-words-and-deeds

More "everyone loves muslims" propaganda...

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!
Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia
in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many
countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods
of commerce and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the
Prophet rule or live.  A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and
refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity.  The fact that in Mohammedan
law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as
a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the
faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion
paralyzes the social development of those who follow it.  No stronger retrograde
force exists in the world.  Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant
and proselytizing faith.  It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising
fearless warriors at every step, and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the
strong arms of science, the science against which it (Islam) has vainly struggled,
the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.” "

Sir Winston, as an officer of the British Army, served in the Sudan and in the Crimean War; in both instances against the Muslims.  These experiences gave him ample opportunity to observe the structure of Islamic society.   Churchill’s quotes were taken from the volume: Sir Winston Churchill; “The River War”, first edition, Volume II, pages 248-250, published by Longmans, Green & Company, 1899

I suggest you read the book when it comes out Tess, what he may of once thought certainly did later change, this is evident with his support of lawrence.

While James and Mukerjee rightly comment that Churchill held many of the contemporary views that saw African and Asian people as in some way inferior to the British (views not unknown now), Churchill was often enlightened with regard to Muslims, especially in the Middle East, and Churchill’s often complex relations here are fruitfully explored by Warren Dockter in Winston Churchill and the Islamic World: Orientalism, Empire and Diplomacy in the Middle East (2015). Churchill also respected the Jewish people, a theme explored by Martin Gilbert in Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship (2007).

Actually I'm not really a great admirer of Churchill, his treatment of the Boers and his use of the Black and Tans in NI.

But he was spot on in the quote about the Mohammedans...

Tess wrote:Actually I'm not really a great admirer of Churchill, his treatment of the Boers and his use of the Black and Tans in NI.  

But he was spot on in the quote about the Mohammedans...

I think it was more in regards to Muslims in Africa Tess, not so much the Arabs as seen.