How Islam saved the Jews from extinction- by David J Wasserstein

How Islam saved the Jews from extinction?

Excerpts from an eye-opening article in The Jewish Chronicle by David J Wasserstein 



https://www.thejc.com/lets-talk/all/so-what-did-the-muslims-do-for-the-jews-1.33597



“Islam saved Jewry. This is an unpopular, discomforting claim in the modern world. But it is a historical truth. The argument for it is double. First, in 570 CE, when the Prophet Mohammad was born, the Jews and Judaism were on the way to oblivion. And second, the coming of Islam saved them, providing a new context in which they not only survived, but flourished.”



“Within a century of the death of Mohammad, in 632, Muslim armies had conquered almost the whole of the world where Jews lived, from Spain eastward across North Africa and the Middle East as far as the eastern frontier of Iran and beyond. Almost all the Jews in the world were now ruled by Islam. This new situation transformed Jewish existence. Their fortunes changed in legal, demographic, social, religious, political, geographical, economic, linguistic and cultural terms - all for the better.”



“In the developing Islamic societies of the classical and medieval periods, being a Jew meant belonging to a category defined under law, enjoying certain rights and protections, alongside various obligations.”



“Along with legal near-equality came social and economic equality. Jews were not confined to ghettos, either literally or in terms of economic activity. The societies of Islam were, in effect, open societies. In religious terms, too, Jews enjoyed virtually full freedom. They might not build many new synagogues - in theory - and they might not make too public their profession of their faith, but there was no really significant restriction on the practice of their religion. Along with internal legal autonomy, they also enjoyed formal representation, through leaders of their own, before the authorities of the state.“



“The most outstanding of these was Islamic Spain, where there was a true Jewish Golden Age, alongside a wave of cultural achievement among the Muslim population.”



“the rise and fall of cultural centres of Islam tended to be reflected in the rise and fall of Jewish cultural activity in the same places.

Jewish cultural prosperity in the middle ages operated in large part as a function of Muslim, Arabic cultural (and to some degree political) prosperity: when Muslim Arabic culture thrived, so did that of the Jews; when Muslim Arabic culture declined, so did that of the Jews.”

“In the case of the Jews, however, the cultural capital thus created also served as the seed-bed of further growth elsewhere - in Christian Spain and in the Christian world more generally.

The Islamic world was not the only source of inspiration for the Jewish cultural revival that came later in Christian Europe, but it certainly was a major contributor to that development. Its significance cannot be overestimated.”


-The writer David J Wasserstein is the Eugene Greener Jr Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University. This article is adapted from last week's Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies, UK.

The glorious contributions of Islamic Civilization to Modern World - CEO of Hewlett Packard Carly Fiorina

CARLY FIORINA, the then CEO of HP (Hewlett-Packard), gave a speech in MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA on SEPTEMBER 26, 2001

titled "TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS AND OUR WAY OF LIFE: WHAT'S NEXT" available on the HP official website.at https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/speeches/fiorina/minnesota01.html 

She ended her speech with the following words on Islamic civilisation: 

"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world.

It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins. 

One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities, and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilization’s commerce extended from Latin America to China, and everywhere in between. 

And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration. 

When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others. 

While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I’m talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent. 

Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians. Sufi poet-philosophers like Rumi challenged our notions of self and truth. Leaders like Suleiman contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership. 

And perhaps we can learn a lesson from his example: It was leadership based on meritocracy, not inheritance. It was leadership that harnessed the full capabilities of a very diverse population–that included Christianity, Islamic, and Jewish traditions. 

This kind of enlightened leadership — leadership that nurtured culture, sustainability, diversity and courage — led to 800 years of invention and prosperity."

Why very few Muslims have won Nobel prize?

Why very few Muslims won Nobel prize in science? 

Some people site the list of Nobel prize winners and say Muslims have not contributed much to science. This is a very superficial approach and shows total ignorance of the history of science. 

Modern West was in dark ages when Islamic Empire was at the peak of Science and civilisation. The West took much of their knowledge from the Muslims and built upon it, this is a well documented fact. 

For a small sample just read this CNN article 'Muslim inventions that shaped the modern world' By Olivia Sterns.  http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/29/muslim.inventions/index.html

For more information on muslim inventions go to: www.muslimheritage.com 

The present day Muslim world's "underdevelopment" is due to the centuries of European colonialism and thereafter the continued exploitative neo-colonial control and Western meddling. 

Muslim world is not alone in this so called scientific underdevelopment. Same trend is seen in the relative lack of Nobel prize winners in science from Christian African countries or South America or even India (whose population is almost comparable with all Muslim countries put together)? Why are they behind the West in Science? Out of the very few Indians who won Nobel prize in science, almost all of them studied and did research in Western Universities, not in India. The reason is obvious.