Ted Hartford wrote:
On 14 Aug 2005, wrote:
Mr Wizzard wrote:
Coupla Q's:
What have muslims done to :
contrubute to the medical industry?
contribute to the Spaces Sciences ?
contribute to Environmental conservation?
contribute to agrricultural research ?
contribure to Internalional Food aid ?
contribute to Computer Science research ?
comtribute to religious tollerance ?
(i.e., can *I*, a white Amarican take
a vacation and visit Mecca?)
...'Nuff said.
Contributed to medical industry?
How about invented the concept of modern medicine in the first place?
An Arab medical text was *the* standard practice manual throughout
Europe and Asia for about 150 years and helped pull European doctors
out of the voo-doo heebie-jeebie blame it on evil-spirits dark ages.
Contributed to Space Science?
How about invented the concept of modern astronomy? Invented advanced
math?
Contributed to Environmental conservation? Does a few thousand years of
working with nature to renew and cultivate the fields in the Nile Delta
count?
Contributed to Computer Science? Would the invention of our numbering
system, as well as algebra and (that's an Arab word,al-gebra) other
advanced math concepts count?
Contributed to religious tolerance? Remember, the terrorists represent
mainstream Islam only as much as the KKK represents mainstream
Christianity. Both cite holy writ as justification for attacking and
murdering folks who don't conform to the small group supposedly
anointed by their screwed up version of God.
Mainstream Muslims regard Jews and Christians as "people of the Book,"
and believe that a devout Jew or a devout Christian can be admitted to
whatever sort of Paradisic Disneyland the Muslims imagine they will
inhabit after death. Muslims are taught, and the Quran demands, that
Jesus, Moses, and Abraham be honored and respected. The Quran calls
Jesus an anointed messenger from God. Sounds like a lot more "religious
tolerance" than you'll hear extended to Islam by many right wing
Americans these days.
In mainstream Islam, the term "infidel" is more exactly applied to
people who are not monotheists. Jews and Christians are only called
"infidels" by the most radical elements of Islam.
Google up "Jesus in the Quran". You might find it surprising.
Why were the Crusaders of the 10th and 11th Centuries called
"infidels"? Because many of them were. The Pope would call for a
crusade, and most of the land owners and rulers needed to at least give
lip service to Christianity to remain in power, but among the ranks of
footmen and other "grunts" there were a lot of folks still openly
following the Old Religion.
Yes, there are exhortations to violence in the Quran. Just as there are
exhortations to violence, murder, and even genocide in the Holy Bible.
(Check out the book of Joshua. If you say, "you have to take that it
context", I would ask "why we must take Joshua in context but then
insist on reading the Quran out of context?")
Any white American can vacation in a Muslim country, and many routinely
do. It's best not to act the fool while there, of course, and to
respect the tenents of the host culture just as one would when visiting
anywhere else. If one walks down the street drinking from an open beer
bottle, gooses the women walking by, and has a smut magazine rolled up
under one's arm there's going to be some serious trouble- but would
that be the fault of the Muslim society or the ignorance and arrogance
of the American visitor?
"nuff said"? :-)
Are you saying that the advances made in the middle east in terms of math,
science, etc. came after 600AD when Islam was founded? The middle east
didn't convert to Islam overnight so we must be referring to advances made
after 600AD.
The first organized school of medicine, the first attempt to establish
something we would today call a "hospital", and the practice of
examining propsective physicians against a standard of required
knowledge were all concepts that were introduced after 700 AD by
Muslims.
Remember that one of the leading "European" powers (Spain) was about
half Muslim for several hundred years prior to 1492. The northen tribes
in Spain were primarily farmers and shepherds, with the seat of
knowledge and culture
clearly centered in the Muslim south during periods of time when many
early advances were made in Spanish knowledge and culture.
Westerners tend to write off about 700 years of history as the "dark
ages."
We would do well to remember that the Catholic Church did not
suppress/distort/forbid the pursuit of knowledge throughout much of the
civilized world during that period of time. While Europe was pedaling
backwards as rapidly as possible, the Arab world (definitely post
Muhammed)
continued to move forward in research and education.
Here's a paragraph from a website (buzzle.com) that expresses the
concept more succinctly:
From this inherent lack of understanding has been borne a naivete
regarding the importance and influence of Arab and Muslim culture on
the Western world and humankind in general. One of the great oversights
of Western history has been the practice of referring to the period
from roughly 800 AD to 1500 AD as the Dark Ages, when in fact, great
discoveries were being made throughout this period in the Arab world.
During this period, all scientific texts were written in Arabic and it
was the discoveries and of the Arab thinkers of this period that laid
the very foundations from which the Renaissance would emerge. Advances
in mathematics as well as the scientific method of detailed and
systematic observation of natural occurrences would contribute to the
period of intellectual growth that propelled the Western world through
the Industrial Revolution.
Bottom line: Only the propagandizers on the far right and their
kool-aid drinking disciples fall for the line that Muslims haven't
contributed to modern society. That would be like claiming that
Alexander Graham Bell didn't contribute to modern communications or
that Benjamin Franklin contributed nothing to our understanding of the
nature of electricity. It's certainly ironic that people who are
totally uneducated about the historic contributions of Muslims and
Arabs in the fields of math, science, and medicine often try to
characterize Muslims as slightly sub-human because they are
"uneducated" or "haven't contributed". :-)