Hubert Parry’s inspired setting of William Blake includes the famous lines ‘Till we have built Jerusalem, In England’s green and pleasant land’. Over the years Parry's Jerusalem has become associated with rabid nationalism , and racism disguised as patriotism is dominating the current political agenda both in Britain and the US . However the album artwork above is not there to illustrate the danger of nuanced racism, but rather to explode the beguiling myth surrounding Parry's Jerusalem. Because far from being the product of ethnic nationalism, Jerusalem started life as a rallying cry for a spiritual movement formed, to quote its founder, to appeal "to the whole of humanity... Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists... " And that is only the start of a long but remarkable story, because Sir Francis Younghusband, who commissioned Jerusalem in 1916, was an evangelical Christian Colonel who led colonial forces in a bloody invasion of Tibet. But in his mature years he became ...
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Maybe we should start a fund to give Mr. Sarkozy some geography lessons!
Except for Constantinople, a traditionally European/Chrsitian city until capture by Turkish/Muslim imperialists in 1453, the vast majority of Turkey is indeed in Asia, and it is wishful thinking - culturally, politically, and economically - for fashionable multi-culti leftists to pretend Turkey is as "European" as any of the EU states.
And Dennis, comments are very welcome on the path, name calling isn't - and I'm very strict on that one.