Blade_Runner wrote:
I'm definitely no gutless coward, and I abhor what fundamentalist Muslims are doing today. However, are you aware that about 90% of the visible stars are recognized by their Arabic names? Algol, Deneb, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Aldebaran, for example. Zenith, nadir, albedo, and azimuth are also Arabic terms. Muslim astronomers were the first to establish observatories, and they invented instruments such as the quadrant and astrolabe, which led to advances not only in astronomy but in oceanic navigation, contributing to the European age of exploration. It was, with the help of Muslim navigators and their inventions that Magellan was able to traverse the Cape of Good Hope, and Da Gama and Columbus had Muslim navigators on board their ships.
Muslims invented the symbol for zero (The word "cipher" comes from Arabic sifr), and they organized the numbers into the decimal system - base 10. Additionally, they invented the symbol to express an unknown quantity, i.e. variables like x.
Muslims built the first hospital in Baghdad in 706 AD.
Lots of things beneficial came from the Arabs, but
Along came the schism that divided Sunni and Shia, and it was all downhill from there. Wahhabiism, the most extreme sect of Islam, is the state religion in Saudi Arabia and was the driving force in Osama bin Laden's creation of al Qaeda.
I understand your feelings, but blind hatred will get you nowhere.
Sun Tsu said that we should know our enemies as we know ourselves. One thing we should never do is underestimate the intelligence of Muslims.
I'm definitely no gutless coward, and I abhor what... (
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