oldNslow wrote on 05/31/15 at 12:41:11: Quote:Bagdad was the world's centre of learning. The West owes it's understanding of mathematics, medicine, and astronomy to those that studied there
That's a bit of a stretch. And even if it was entirely true it's irrelevant. The new Caliphate that present day Muslims are dreaming about, won't bear much resemblance to the supposed glories of that civilization.
The systematic destruction of the artifacts of their own culture by the ISIS idiots ought to be example enough of that.
The civilization they are working to create is going to be one of savagery, ignorance, and theological tyranny.
Islam is a crackpot religion founded by a psychotic, megalomaniac pedophile. It is evil and indefensible as far as I am concerned. And defending evil in the name of tolerance is simply making a virtue out of cowardice.
Actually, no, it isn't. It's perhaps a bit off in the historical timeline, but the world-famous centers of excellence for learning were, in historical order, Thebes in ancient Egypt, Alexandria (founded by Alexander the Great) the city whose Great Library became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and then Baghdad, because once all the expansion wars ended the Caliphs (=Kings, or rather, Priest Kings) realized there was more to gain by collecting wisdom than there was by forging swords.
The expression "Swords into Plowshares" is not a modern British political principle; it was practiced by the Caliphs who civilized a Middle east which had fallen into disrepair after the fall of the Roman Empire, and was such a well known principle you will find it, surprise surprise, in KJV Isaiah 2:4 "
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
In the days when Christian Kings and Bishops were preaching that bathing and personal hygene was work of the devil, arabs had taken on Graeco-Roman (and Egyptian) tradition and built Hammàms (public baths, separate for men and women).
When the last Moorish King fled Granada when the Spaniards (re)conquered Spain, these latter were described as "bloodthirsty, fiendish, filthy animals" who stank and never washed. (Interestingly enough, the same was said of Cortès and Pissarro by the Aztecs and Incas, untrustworthy, greedy and filthy)
As long as the Silk Roads were trod by European and Arabic merchants, come the end of the last Crusade in the Holy Land, it was mostly skirmishes at sea, but Christians were so busy killing each other in religious wars the Muslims were leading relatively quiet lives. Come Christopher Columbus and his blowing the whistle, the Silk Routes were gradually abandoned and Christians found it more economical to rape, pillage and plunder two entire continents than to continue profitable business as usual.
The result is two continents whose people were mass murdered, whose scientific knowledge was erased, whose theology was ignored and whose legacy was burned to cinders.
May we thank the Spaniards for all that happened south of the Rio Grande and neo-Englishmen for what happened north of the river.
You're getting old, and very slow...
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