TweetOff

Radio 4's The Film Programme looked into the history of Ennio Morricone's music for the final shootout in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars -  music that defied the bullfighter-music-like expectations of Leone and which drew on a pre-existing lullaby of Morricone's to create music so haunting that, when it reached its height, it could truly stir the heart - music of tenderness turned into operatic spaghetti western magnificence.

Actually, I'd say that the final shootout of For a Few Dollars More shows that even more clearly. If there's a better use of music in a film I've yet to hear it.

Shootouts are so last century though (if only). What we have now are 'TweetOffs'.

Sadly Ennio Morricone was unavailable to score today's epic 'TweetOff' between a British historian (more likely to be found on Channel 4 than the BBC - for reasons that will soon become apparent) an a U.S. academic.

Now we start...

Mounting excitement. Only 5 mins now until my #TweetOff with @hahellyer on whether the Islamic State is Islamic pic.twitter.com/MLHdReHyj2
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) March 7, 2015

ISIS part of a broader trend in Islam: to strip away the cladding of tradition & return to what is cast as the faith's primal form #TweetOff
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) March 7, 2015

ISIS’ interpretation of Islam may be brutally literalist but is certainly Islamic. Eg imposing the jizya = obedience to the Qur'an #TweetOff
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) March 7, 2015

ISIS are Islamic in the way the Anabaptists were Christian. To takfir them is to sound like More condemning Tyndale as a heretic. #TweetOff
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) March 7, 2015

Jihadi John (#JJ) & Breivik are v.similar. Both claim versions of religion: but deviant. We rightly don’t take Breivik at his word.#TweetOff
— H.A. Hellyer د. إتش (@hahellyer) March 7, 2015

No church in Islam. But religious authoritative system exists. #JJ denounced by all bonafide religious authorities, & most Muslims.#TweetOff
— H.A. Hellyer د. إتش (@hahellyer) March 7, 2015

Understanding how religion is abused relevant: but ascribing ‘Islamic’ means we prioritise bizarre ISIS’s pleading over all else. #TweetOff
— H.A. Hellyer د. إتش (@hahellyer) March 7, 2015

.@hahellyer You assume that religions are absolutes. They're not: they're contingent, forever evolving. The DNA of ISIS is Islamic #TweetOff
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) March 7, 2015

.@hahellyer When ISIS impose jiyza on Christians & - following the eg of Muhammad - topple idols, that seems to me pretty Islamic. #TweetOff
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) March 7, 2015

.@holland_tom Comparison of Da'ash w/ Lutheranism historically ill placed (others qualify). Better fit with Lord's Resistance Army.#TweetOff
— H.A. Hellyer د. إتش (@hahellyer) March 7, 2015

.@holland_tom ISIS ‘strips away’ tradition to extent no Muslim religious authority recognises it as authentic. Why then should we? #TweetOff
— H.A. Hellyer د. إتش (@hahellyer) March 7, 2015

.@holland_tom Religious traditions evolve: the question is authenticity. ISIS grants itself that stature: but few(inc. you☺)agree! #TweetOff
— H.A. Hellyer د. إتش (@hahellyer) March 7, 2015

ISIS are the shock-troops of an on-going & broader Islamic reformation: a return to a supposedly primal, uncorrupted form of Islam #TweetOff
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) March 7, 2015

Imperative to understand establishment of authenticity in Islam (http://t.co/rGEbX5G2mk) & not assume similarity with Catholicism. #TweetOff
— H.A. Hellyer د. إتش (@hahellyer) March 7, 2015

ISIS have a caliph, impose jizya, topple idols, punish hudud crimes & carry a flag that bears the shahada: it is brutally Islamic. #TweetOff
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) March 7, 2015

Is ‘Positive Christianity’ of Nazism, or ISIS ‘authentic’? No, unless Islam or Christianity is a ‘do-it-yourself’ kit. Neither is. #TweetOff
— H.A. Hellyer د. إتش (@hahellyer) March 7, 2015

Let me add, as an addendum to the #TweetOff, that I'm not saying ISIS are synonymous with Islam - merely that they are indeed Islamic.
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) March 7, 2015

The RUSI/ Brookings guy goes down, crows calling in the distance, clutching his sides. The undertaker rubs his hands. Tom Holland turns and walks away into the sunset. 

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