Lanterns of Magnificent Islam

Submitted by Salah Ali (Norway), Jun 8, 2009 at 11:19

Lou from Queens says: And yo, Salah Ali, it was the "Pig Eating", MONGOLS that collapsed your mighty Islamic Caliphate in the early 13th century. Interesting on how your ... Arabian/Persian propagandists ignore that historical fact.

After that came, " Tamerlane", so the fact remains that is WAS NOT the Western Judeo - Christian world that destoyed your "Golden Age", but rather pagan invaders from the East. Perhaps Osama, and others in your part of the world should take up history instead of Islamic studies when they go to school. Or for that matter something else that might benefit the rest of humanity. So sad, over a billion people only share about half a dozen, "Nobel Prizes", in that area of the world. Tiny little Israel has 8, more than Persia, and the Arabs put together. And the horrible USA has over 300 !!!!!!!

My Comment: Once again your answer shows a flagrant ignorance of history, a sort of one-eyed and blurred vision. In the time the Mongols attacked Baghdad: There were several Islamic states all over the Islamic world: In Andalusia the Emirate of Granada continued the Islamic presence in Europe for more than two centuries to come.

When the Arabs left Spain leaving their prints in architectural magnificence and in the very blood of the Spaniards, the Ottoman Moslems took Constantinople, penetrated Europe and their Moslem armies (As Hannibal before Rome before) stood at the Gates of Vienna. Place names everywhere in the Balkans testify to the Islamic dominance everywhere the blessed word of Allah was invoked. In 1260, the Mamluk Islamic State in Egypt headed by Qutuz defeated the armies of Hulagu Khan in Ain Jalut. The Mongols themselves embraced Islam, established the Islamic Ilkhanid State and continued Islamic conquest in India. Tamerlane, himself, was a Shiite Moslem whose support of the Qara Qoyunlu strengthened the roots for The Safawi movement headed by Ismail Shah who converted the whole of Persia into Twelfism- a form of Shiite Islam that had, in turn, given birth to staunch Moslem leaders as Imam Khomeini later on.

Besides being a faith of the heart and a major religion, Islam is a concept and a world view. You cannot destroy concepts. The caliphate as an institution continued down to 1924 when Kemal Ataturk dissolved it. But it had its prints on the mind and history. Everybody knows the episode and correspondences between Charlemagne and the Caliph Haron Al-Rashid.

Also, upon authority of Bernard Lewis, Islam is most powerful in Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. There will come a time when these States relinquish Secularism or rather pseudo Secularism.

Moreover, you tell a lie when you speak of a Western Judeo-Christian world. The Western world may be Christian (though now the majority is increasingly becoming irreligious) but it is never t Jewish. The Jews were mostly immigrant minority that had been massacred in Poland and Germany. Some were even forced to re-immigrate by Zionist organizations to Israel, many to Turkey. It is an axiom that the Jews are in both history and ethnicity, Middle Easterners, not Western. (Read Albright: Yahew and the Gods of Canaan).

The immigrant Jews in Europe did not constitute a Nation; nevertheless you speak of a Judeo-Christian World. Are you kidding? Even Christianity doesn't dovetail with Judaism. The Jews are Monotheist, Christians are not. They believe in Trinity. As such the Jews are nearer in Culture and religion to the Moslems and the Arabs respectively than they are to the West. If you had the illusion that since Marx, Einstein and Freud are Jews and they lived in Europe, Europe became Jewish, you are wrong and only talking to yourself!

We the Arabs were pagan but embraced Islam, the Mongols and even few Christians followed in step. Now, to your Nobel Prize, first, those who were given the NP in Israel are criminals who shared it with Arabs. As for the others they are not Westerners only. They include Indian, Chinese and other nationalities.

(Muslims, unfortunately, have not been recipients of many Nobel prizes. Is it because our greatest academic achievements were made before Alfred Nobel decided to donate his money for the international awards? Ibn Khaldoum, Al-Khwarizmi, Ibn-Sina, Al-Biruni etc are all ancient names, sometimes only remembered fondly because the names sound mysterious, and sometimes only when their names are seen on history walls in museums. Despite the achievements by these great people, it is often surprising ad embarrassing how few Muslim students have any idea what they accomplished. That ignorance speaks volumes for how our societies have come to value advances in academia (and sciences in particular). Italics Quoted from Wikipedia

Moreover it is unfair to judge the contribution of Islam and Moslems to humanity by considering only 110 years of the history of mankind and on criteria established by the West. It is a common fact that many of the great scientific discoveries were actually made by Moslem scientists. Their contribution in the field of translation had preserved Greek sciences to posterity and if not for Moslem contributions, Europe would have still been in darkness. Moreover, the majority of the Moslem nations were under occupation by Western countries during the Nobel Prize period. They only became independent starting in the 1940s. Nevertheless, there are few Moslem names in the Nobel Prize list including Abdus Salam (1926-1996), Naguib Mahfouz (1926-2006) and recently Orhan Pamuk. The major advances in history were initiated by my ancestors. We invented writing and the wheel which transformed humanity from agriculture to technology. The first, poem, the first law, the first epic and the first Ziggurat were built in Iraq. What you have made that compares to these achievements?

Salah Ali

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