Submitted by Aamir Ali Ansari(Pakistan), Aug 24, 2007 at 15:07
I thank DanielPipes.org for giving a comprehensive platform to air views...
I fail to understand why so much efforts are made to convince the world that Muslims belong to the unwanted community on earth. In fact the muslim contribution in the world cannot be ignored by any educated person. The word Surgery came from Jarahi (Arab), the algebra (al jabr) is the gift of arab muslims, even the mirror and laws of reflection are from muslim scientists. Other muslim inventions includes Gunpowder, telescope, marine compass and a huge list of inventions that enabled modern science to reach zenith.
This is unfortunately true that through centuries of efforts the west destroyed all important work of Muslims and burned important libraries and material. They then promoted their language and culture sending muslims far behind..The current status of muslims is due to series of efforts to topple muslim empires and divide and bifurcate in countries and groups and cultures. Infact Islam teach that all muslims no matter what cast or creed are equal.
The Muslim civilization had attained such a high standard that it served as a beacon light to the West. The Christian conquerors of Spain tried to efface all traces of Arab civilization from their sacred land. In 1499 all literary treasures of the Muslims were collected from different libraries of Spain and burned by Cardinal Ximens, Archbishop of Toledo. Writing in the Spirit of Islam, Ameer Ali says, that in Spain, "Christianity destroyed the intellectual life of the people. TheMuslims had turned Spain into a garden; the Christians converted it into a desert. The Muslims had covered the land with colleges and schools; the Christians tranformed them into churches for the worship of saints and images. The literary and scientific treasures amassed by the Muslim sovereigns were consigned to the flames"
===== end of extract =======
The media at present is run and funded by those who for their own reasons hate islam. Nowadays we so much rely on print and electronic media that we are not interested in finding out true facts. The terms fundamentalist and extremist is something promoted by the media. All bad works by muslims are project and no positive effort get chance on media.
Muslims are constantly disturbed by people like Salman Rushdi..and others who get awards from west for humiliating muslims. Those who are unable to hold their nerves becomes terrorist or Jihadi in the eyes of west. The fundamentailsm is the following of basic rules of islam and extremism is the cent per cent acceptance and practice of all islamic teachings.
This means If a person is following few instructions from his doctor is fundamentalist and a person who follow all instructions is extremist..wow it means that being fundamentalist muslim is more risky that being extremist..People on the other hand take different meanings of these terms..i hope my explanations has clarified.
We the educated lot among muslims are trying hard to clean our image in front of world but the series of assualts on muslim lands and humiliation in Iraq Abu Gharib jail, Cuba and Afghanistan are producing more terrorists than intellectuals..The west lost its credibility in the eyes of muslims..they are unable and not at all capable of ruling muslim populations...
One very important thing which should corrected..Quran is a seperate and pure book on earth with no second or incomplete or editted version. Quran is not Islamic Bible at all..there is no comparison..reference http://www.submission.org/miracle/
Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.