The popular myth that Islam is fundamentally a peaceful and tolerant religion that created a “golden age” of learning and science beginning in the eighth century was invented by prominent rationalists and theological modernists more than a hundred years ago. Men such as Voltaire claimed that Europe fell into a dark age because of “Christianity” (Catholicism) and was rescued by an enlightened Islam. “In time, some scholars began to see almost all European science and learning as an Arab creation, or at least something that appeared only under the influence of the Arabs. This opinion took root in the nineteenth century, and by the early years of the twentieth century had become, in some quarters at least, part of received wisdom” (Emmet Scott,Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisited). A prominent historian in 1919 said that “Spain, not Italy, was the cradle of the rebirth of Europe” (Robert Briffault, The Making of Humanity, p. 189). This has always been complete nonsense. A “Golden Age of Islam” in Baghdad was not because of Islam, but in spite of it. Tolerant, educational-minded Muslim caliphs are not the rule in history, but the extreme exception, and they were tolerant and educational-minded by not being strict followers of the Quran. Further, most of the inventions that have been promoted as Muslim inventions were actually inventions of China, Persia, and India. (Friday Church News Notes, October 9, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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