Dappled Things: “Andrew Cusack posts an interesting article by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, contrasting the behavior of Moslem monarchies with that of Moslem republics.

… While individual monarchs historically may have been capricious or cruel, monarchy as an institution is inclined to be generous: Montesquieu has told us that while the driving element in republics is virtue, in monarchies it is clemency. And, indeed, the Islamic monarchs of old were infinitely more tolerant than their modern republican successors….

He also mentions a fact recently mentioned to me, that by now almost all the royal heads of Europe are descendents of Mohammed, via an Arab prince who centuries ago married into the royalty of old Castilla. ” [via walker]