Islam and learning.

We're not persuaded by the stories of the flowering of knowledge under the caliphs.

The modest (we're guessing) contributions to mathematics -- the discovery of the concept of zero perhaps being a portent -- and astronomy were overshadowed by the centuries of obscurantism and unwarranted sense of superiority based on nothing but military superiority.

Forget the upmtiump Arab armies that have been unable to expel the Israelis from anywhere for the moment and consider China.

China too had its native sons who refused to adapt to the challenge of the West and it paid the price of Western domination into the early 1900s. It then went through a period of dynastic upheaval and political turmoil eventually resulting in the partial consolidation of power under the Nationalist Party.

The Nationalists fared disastrously under Japanese attack and occupation. Civil war after the end of WWII (and Marshall's betrayal) led to the establishment of a crazed communist government that itself embarked on a war with the U.S. in the 1950s and various insane internal political campaigns thereafter. One campaign had professors being sent to slop hogs in the boondocks as a way for them to acquire the wisdom that comes from manual labor. This was very helpful to them in their in understanding of molecular chemistry.

Now China is a world class economic and military power with a space program.

We'll just go out on another limb here and posit that had China been Muslim all this time, the Chinese'd be pulling rickshaws for Guatemalan tourists in Beijing right now.

And for those Arab countries that have been Muslim all along, here's a short summary of their accomplishments:

. . . Arthur Koestler once remarked, the Arab world has not, in the last 500 years or so, produced much besides rugs, dirty postcards, elaborations on the belly-dance esthetic (and, of course, some innovative terrorist practices). They have no science to speak of, no art, hardly any industry save oil, very little literature, and portentous music which consists largely of lugubrious songs celebrating the slaughter of Jews.^[1]

Anyyyway . . . here's a glimpse back in time at what just might be an accurate description of the problems that Muslims have with learning (and it doesn't even mention Wahabbism):

[In Muslim civilization, the] occasional fountain and palace were enjoyed by only the very, very few. Books of Greek learning were translated into Arabic by Christians in Lebanon. So it was that they had books by Ptolemy and Aristotle and Galen on medicine, algebra, and geometry, but they never added any new knowledge or improved upon it. A handful of Greeks invented more in a few years than billions of Muslims ever did in centuries.

The Muslims destroyed any books that they didn’t like the sound of, so it is that Plato and political discussions did not get wide translation. Only books on mathematics and medicine that didn’t seem to contradict the Koran were taken up. Meanwhile, Muslim hordes destroyed vast libraries in monasteries and towns all over the place. The most notorious one was the famed library at Alexandria where the Caliph was famously said to burn them in case they contradicted the Koran. Here is the historical account:

The Moslems invaded Egypt during the seventh century as their fanaticism carried them on conquests that would take form an empire stretching from Spain to India. However, when a Christian called “John” informed the local Arab general that there existed in Alexandria a great Library preserving all the knowledge in the world, he was perturbed. Eventually he sent word to Damascus where Caliph Omar ordered that all the books in the library should be destroyed because, as he said, “They will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous.” Therefore, the books and scrolls were taken out of the library and distributed as fuel to the many bathhouses of the city. So enormous was the volume of literature, that it took six months for it all to be burnt to ashes to heat the saunas of the conquerors.

This destruction of learning goes on today. The Bedouins that found the Dead Sea scrolls were using them for fire kindling until someone in the market heard about the find and rescued what was left.

When Turkish troops invaded North Cyprus in the 1970’s, the Muslims took great delight in destroying old manuscripts stored in the churches and monasteries there.

Of course, we have the hateful mobs of Muslims that gathered to burn the books of Salman Rushdie, because they didn’t like something he wrote, [and] thus wanted to kill him. . . .

It is this cultic suppression of individual and original thoughts which shows why no born Muslims have won a Nobel prize for any scientific advance. There have been a couple of converts in chemistry and medicine that have won a recent prize, but compared to the dozens and dozens of, say, Jewish Nobel prize winners, the contrast is startling.

And how could they, when madrassas teach mostly simply the reciting of the Koran? Days and years are spent in repetition and chanting over the Koran, whilst nothing is spent developing an individual or unique view.^[2]

Notes
^[1] "Saving Arabs From Themselves." By David Gutmann, FrontPageMagazine.com, 8/12/05.
^[2] "The Truth About Islam: Part One." By Crusader, Sixth Column, undated.