This is an article written by prince Charles. Of course I am quoting him because he goes my way... Thanks to a muslim spain, europe could see the light.. This si Prince's Cahrles own words HRH, The Prince of Wales, Islam And The West http://media.isnet.org/off/Islam/basics/IslamsContribution.html . . . we have underestimated the importance of 800 years of Islamic society and culture in Spain between the 8th and 15th centuries. The contribution of Muslim Spain to the preservation of classical learning during the Dark Ages, and to the first flowering of the Renaissance, has long been recognized. But Islamic Spain was much more than a mere larder where Hellenistic knowledge was kept for later consumption by the emerging modern world. Not only did Muslim Spain gather and preserve the intellectual content of ancient Greek and Roman civilization, it also interpreted and expanded upon that civilization, and made a vital contribution of its own in so many fields of human endeavour -- in science, astronomy, mathematics, algebra (itself an Arabic word), law, history, medicine, pharmacology, optics, agriculture, architecture, theology, music. Averroes and Avenzoor, like their counterparts Avicenna and Rhazes in the East, contributed to the study and practice of medicine in ways from which Europe benefited for centuries afterwards. Islam nurtured and preserved the quest for learning. In the words of (the Prophet's) tradition "the ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr." Cordoba in the 10th century was by far the most civilized city of Europe. We know of lending libraries in Spain at the time King Alfred was making terrible blunders with the culinary arts in this country. It is said that the 400,000 volumes of its ruler's library amounted to more books than all the of the rest of Europe put together. That was made possible because the Muslim world acquired from China the skill of making paper more than four hundred years before the rest of non-Muslim Europe. Many of the traits on which Europe prides itself came to it from Muslim Spain. Diplomacy, free trade, open borders, the techniques of academic research, of anthropology, etiquette, fashion, alternative medicine, hospitals, all came from this great city of cities. Mediaeval Islam was a religion of remarkable tolerance for its time, allowing Jews and Christians to practice their inherited beliefs, and setting an example which was not, unfortunately, copied for many centuries in the West. The surprise, ladies and gentlemen, is the extent to which Islam has been a part of Europe for so long, first in Spain, then in the Balkans, and the extent to which has contributed so much towards the civilization which we all too often think of, wrongly, as entirely Western. Islam is part of our past and present, in all fields of human endeavour. It has helped to create modern Europe. It is part of our own inheritance, not a thing apart.
"Someone has said that Europeans in South Africa dread the advent Islam -- Islam that civilized Spain, Islam that took the torch light to Morocco and preached to the world the Gospel of brotherhood. The Europeans of South Africa dread the Advent of Islam. They may claim equality with the white races. They may well dread it, if brotherhood is a sin. If it is equality of colored races then their dread is well founded." And in "Young India", he wrote: "I wanted to know the best of one who holds today's undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind....I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to this friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the 2nd volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the great life."
When he was in Makkah, Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz wrote a letter to his loyal assistants in Harlem... from his heart: "Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors. "I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca, I have made my seven circuits around the Ka'ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad, I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam. I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al Marwah. I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat. "There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white. "America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color. "You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth. "During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug - while praying to the same God - with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana. "We were truly all the same (brothers) - because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude. "I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man - and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their 'differences' in color. "With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called 'Christian' white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster - the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves. "Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth - the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to. "Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors - honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King - not a Negro. "All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds. "Sincerely,
Look, they invaded and took over Spain. This is a fact. Now, how does one civilization invade, conquer and occupy another civilization? By violence. Ofcourse they killed and raped. That was the modus operandi of invasion. That is how you beat your enemy. This has happened many times in human history. We know the drill. Never has an army shown up at the gates and started to serenade those inside the castle. Rather they have broken through the gates and hacked those inside to pieces until they surrendered. This is what happened to people living in Spain. That is how the Muslim civilization took over and ruled over them for 700 years. I know you may not like to think of it in those terms but that is how it went down. With regards to rape specifically, the generally accepted treatment of unbelievers is that they are to be conquered. In history Muslim invaders have repeatedly raped the conquered women calling them kafir and therefore open season is declared. The most recent example of this when Pakistani soldiers raped Bangali women in 1971. The women in such cases have no legal recourse and must simply suffer the indignity of bearing such a child. From the Quran: "And all married women are forbidden unto you except those captives whom your right hand possesses. It is a decree of Allah for you." (4:24) Have you been to Spain? Have you travelled within Spain? I have and I can tell you that as you move from South to North you notice a remarkable difference in people's appearance. In the South, they have olive skin, black hair (and a lot of it) but as you go to the North you begin to see blonde haired people, light skin, and fair coloured eyes. Is it a coincidence that those that were under the occupation of Arabs resemble them more than those who in the North were never under their occupation? Another country that was attacked, and occupied for many years was Persia. Did you know that original Persians were of fair skin and many had light coloured eyes? Most people don't know that. Unfortunately the Aryan race was taken hostage by that maniac Hitler and is forever related to him now. Who do you think are the Aryans? Do you think he would be so taken with a race that was dark, hairy and Arab like? My point is that just like the Spanish, Persians were attacked, conquered and ruled over for 222 years. Why? Because they were infidels. They were Zoroastrian. All the temples were burned and destroyed.Why? Because they were idolators. The temples contained images of God. Everyone was forced to recant their faith at the sword. It was many years later that the Persians rose up and threw out the invading Arab hoardes. One of the champions of that stuggle was a great soldier and tactician named Babake Khoramdin - my namesake. http://hometown.aol.com/ahreemanxii/page40.html ------------------------------------------ Now you bring up the point of the scientific achievements of that time. This was never in question. In fact I agree with you. Many scholars today say that the renaissance came into being as a result of the dissemination of that scientific achievement. I fail to see why you introduce this topic into the discussion because until then you had stated that Islam was a civilization and religion of peace. I stated that this was not true and pointed out to the verses from the Quran and then to historic facts like the invasion of Spain (which by the way was but one of the countries invaded and occupied). This seems to be a pattern for you. Whenever you can not refute a fact that is pointed out you cut and paste a thousand and one links about something totally different. Stating that the civilization which ruled over Spain for 700 years accomplished many scientific marvels has no bearing on the fact that that civilization invaded, and occupied Spain. Just like they invaded and occupied many other countries. You can not sugar coat that act of utter aggression by saying "Look at the advanced culture! Look at the advanced scientific achievements!" And you can not state that the civilization that came from Islam was peaceful because it attacked and conquered many of its neighbours. I know that as a Moslem you may not like to hear these things but just because a fact is bitter does not make it go away.
"For many years there have been whisperings and rumours within the Naqshbandi Sufi Order and in the world of Islam on the whole regarding the connection between the Royal Family of Britain and Islam. Sheikh Nazim al Haqqani has often mentioned the sincere, Islamic qualities of our Royals and even that they may one day be the Islamic Sultanate. It is of course common knowledge that Prince Charles is more than just interested in spiritual knowledge. An early biography described an enormous breadth to the Prince's knowledge and wisdom to be found in the world's religious and spiritual traditions. Not many know he has an Islamic Art School in London as part of the Institute for Architecture. Moreover, his ground breaking speech at Oxford about Islam left many reeling."
You are naive big time. I find you are intellectually weak. I don't trust you as an historian. Of course I have been to spain and what you say is simply wrong even going up to France you have people looking like arabs... and you know what even in north africa you have people looking like sweedish... This is just funny how you want to turn to a specialisty of history. Start reading the good sources and only then could you be able to speak about history. Anytime you had a small argument to attack Iraq you post it.. And when nothing seems solid then you start attacking Islam and muslims. I think that with all the posts that are here people have all what it takes are to learn more about this religion and know that it is far from being an evil or a dark religion.. On the contrary it gave birth to many of our modern technologies and medecine.. One guy that fought against colonisation by the British is Gandhi... and basically for him, it was impossible for a few arab to colonise so quickly and so rapidly so many countries violently.. There were conditions for that quick growth... More democracy, the Arabs were not necessarily ruling. As you could have noticed it is not an arab that entered Spain but a berber an inhabitant of North africa.. Why not an arab???? When the french and British colonized african, asian ... countries do you think that there were arabs, Idians asian at the top of their army??? NO... yet in the arab world you had top scientists, philosophers .. that were all but arab.. and This was their strenght. Reread serious history books and you will see.. just reread Gandhi words.. France and Great Britain violently occupied many countries.. the fact that races mixes is not a bad it is a good... Mr. Mahatma Gandhi: "Someone has said that Europeans in South Africa dread the advent Islam -- Islam that civilized Spain, Islam that took the torch light to Morocco and preached to the world the Gospel of brotherhood. The Europeans of South Africa dread the Advent of Islam. They may claim equality with the white races. They may well dread it, if brotherhood is a sin. If it is equality of colored races then their dread is well founded." And in "Young India", he wrote: "I wanted to know the best of one who holds today's undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind....I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to this friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the 2nd volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the great life."
traderfut2000- How about putting the premise of your argument(s) and/or position, in one or two paragraphs ten to 15 lines each. No cut & paste allowed.
Yes, Traderfut, a good dose of Gandhian or Mandelan philsophy is probably about the only way to stop the Americans and the Muslims committing terror against eachother...
I think that it is opposing culture that is dangerous. I think that one feeds the other.. It is simply well known that westeners tried to hide during many years the contribution of Islam and Prince Charles is just doing a good job by revealing what it brought to western civilization.. Even your "ancestors the greeks"would have been deleted from our history were not the arabs. In the first year at university I read the famous Joseph Shumpeter and his book about economic history. When he arrived to the 900/1000 AC he said that there was a black hole with no concrete developement in economics.. This was just too funny. It was one of the most prolific period of history of mankind and for him it was just a black hole???? Many people use the argument of religion and explain with scientific arrogance that Islam was a violent religion and that it just copied greek and latin books.. In the recent years many historian corrected all that and there are today excellent history books on that period... of course they are there for those willing to learn, but you will always find those that will never accept those historical facts. Peace