Islam is incompatible with Christianity and Judaism, he said, just as Middle Eastern political theory differs from Western theory.
“In Western thought, the converse of tyranny is freedom. In Muslim thought, the converse of tyranny is justice,” Lewis said.
One audience member criticized Lewis, saying that placing sole responsibility on the Middle East neglected to take into account the detrimental effects of various Western policies toward the region.
But Lewis dismissed this point as “nonsense.”
According to Lewis, blaming others for the condition of the Middle East leads to a pointless spiral of conspiracy theories.
The talk, a 2002 Gustav Pollock Lecture in Research and Government, was co-sponsored by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Institute of Politics.