Summary
Historian quoted in The Question of Palestine for his description of the Middle Eastern minorities as closed communities, each a world sufficient to its members, against the universality of the Sunni world.
Details
- Hourani is quoted by Said for the minorities’ peculiar self-consciousness: “On the whole, these groups formed closed communities. Each was a “world,” sufficient to its members and exacting their ultimate loyalty. The worlds touched but did not mingle with each other; each looked at the rest with suspicion and even hatred.” (The Question of Palestine, PDF p.166 / printed p.145).
- In the same quoted passage, the Sunni world, although torn by internal dissension, had something universal, a self-confidence and sense of responsibility which the others lacked, and all the minorities were marginal, shut out from power and historical decision (The Question of Palestine, PDF p.166 / printed p.145).
- Said also takes from Hourani the phrase for what militant minorities have been aggressors against: the universality, self-confidence, and sense of responsibility of Sunni — that is, majority — Islam (The Question of Palestine, PDF p.167 / printed p.146).