 For sheer heedless anti @-@ intellectualism , unrestrained or unencumbered by the slightest trace of critical self @-@ consciousness , no one , in my experience , has achieved the sublime confidence of Bernard Lewis , whose almost purely political exploits require more time to mention than they are worth . In a series of articles , and one particularly weak book — The Muslim Discovery of Europe ( 1982 ) — Lewis has been busy responding to my argument , insisting that the Western quest for knowledge about other societies is unique , that it is motivated by pure curiosity , and that , in contrast , Muslims neither were able nor interested in getting knowledge about Europe , as if knowledge about Europe were the only acceptable criterion for true knowledge . 
