Questions about Roger Scruton Journal Article

Butterworth Roger Scruton, known for his good-natured conservatism and general at- tempts to defend traditional Western life, seems blind to the novelty of our globalized world as he conflates Islam with radical Islam and at- tacks Muslims as though all were Islamists. His publications include critical editions of most of the Middle Commentaries written by Averroes on Aristotle’s logic; translations of books and treatises by Averroes, Alfarabi, and Alrazi, as well as Maimonides‒ and studies of different aspects of the political teaching of these and other thinkers in the ancient, medieval, and modern tradition of philosophy. It does not command Jews and Chris- tians “to take no divinity besides the one God and no lords from among each other” (Scruton, 36), but simply declares to “the people of the book,” that is, to Jews and Christians, what is central to Islam, namely, monothe- ism without priestly hierarchy. The verse is addressed to Muhammad and explains to him the proper attitude he – and, following his example, all Muslims – should take toward Jews and Christians.