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In his fascinating analysis of secularization, JosACO Casanova argues that secularization is not an inevitable teleological outcome; rather, he views European secularization as 'exceptional,' because the process of rehgious decline is 'accompanied by a 'secularist' self-understanding that interprets the decline as 'normal' and 'progressive" for the 'modern' and 'enlightened' European (p. 89). Casanova and Bassam Tibi, although in disagreement about important aspects of Europe's Muslim question, remind one that, given Europe's growing Mushm population, a significant religious minority that is not assimilated or integrated into European civil and political hfe, namely the original member states of the EU, are not as liberal as some may like to beheve.

What we recall today from this expedition are the artistic and scientific contributions of the scientists, archaeologists, and artists he brought along, echoes of which crop up everywhere in the empire style in the form of obelisks, pyramids, and sphinxes. [...] the Russian commander, prince Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, comes across as a fat fatalist in Tolstoy's War and Peace, nodding off to sleep during war councils, in keeping with Tolstoy's theory that history is governed by huge impenetrable forces, and generals and princes do not really matter.