What Jews/Israel and Moslems/Arabs Contribute to the World – Part 1
Moslem/Arab Gifts to the Modern World
© David Burton 2016
What Jews/Israel and Moslems/Arabs Contribute to the World – Part 1
© David Burton 2016 |
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This article is the first of two that illustrate what Moslems/Arabs and Jews/Israel have
been contributing to our modern world. Here in Part 1, I will attempt to describe the gifts to humanity that the
more than 317 million Moslems/Arabs in the Middle East-North Africa
region[1] and the 248 million Moslems in
Sub-Saharan Africa[2] have given us.
For the past several hundred years, with the exception of oil, the Arab and Moslem world has contributed little if anything to the rest of the world. It has produced essentially no technology, medicine or anything else in the world of science. It has almost no contributions to world literature, art or to intellectual development. But, In one respect, a part of the Moslem/Arab world has contributed much more to our modern world than has the State of Israel – the radical fundamentalist segment of the Moslem/Arab world has gifted us terrorism, destruction, rape and slavery. The number of terror attacks by radical Islamists throughout the modern world are now too numerous, too horrendous and too well-known to bear repeating here in their entirety. Islamic gifts to the modern world include rape, sexual abuse, slavery and forced marriage. While many of these “gifts” have been primarily bestowed on other Moslems and the black population of Africa, other of these “gifts” are being conferred upon the rest of the world. In early 2015, “UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said 2014 was marked by harrowing accounts of rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage being used by {Moslem} extremists including the Islamic State group {ISIS} and Boko Haram. “. . . the UN chief expressed ‘grave concern’ over sexual violence perpetrated by armed groups, including those promoting {Moslem} extremist ideologies in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, Libya and Yemen. - - - “Since mid-2014, the report said, ‘there has been a significant increase in the number of reported cases of sexual violence perpetrated by terrorist groups,’ especially the Islamic State group which ‘uses sexual violence to spread terror, persecute ethnic and religious minorities and suppress communities that oppose its ideology.’ "The report singled out that group’s abduction of hundreds of Yazidi women and girls in Iraq, some of whom were taken into Syria and ‘sold’ in markets to be used as sex slaves. . . . - - - “In Sudan’s western Darfur region, it said the number of displaced civilians has increased over the past year and so have reports of sexual violence. And in South Sudan, it said sexual violence remains prevalent — including gang rape, castration, forced nudity and forced abortion — which is ‘exacerbated by impunity and a militarized society in which gender inequality is pronounced.’ ” (Ref. 4) Today, slavery is unknown everywhere in the world, except in portions of the Arab world! Islamic extremists have given the world the mass murder of innocent civilians. 9/11, the Paris attacks, the Boston marathon bombings, the London subway bombings, etc., etc., etc. are but a few of the multitude of acts of Islamic terrorism that illustrate the ongoing slaughter of innocent civilians by “heroic Islamic fighters and martyrs”. Will someone please explain to me how murdering an innocent and defenseless civilian can, by any stretch of the imagination, be called “heroic”. Most of us would deem such behavior as cowardly. It’s one thing to die fighting armed opponents, but quite another thing to go out and kill unarmed and innocent civilians, including the aged, the infirm, women and children. Islamic fundamentalists have destroyed irreplaceable historical, religious and archaeological treasures. ”In March 2001, six months before the September 11th bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, the Taliban destroyed two ancient statues of the Buddha called Bamiyan in an attempt to cleanse the country of Afghanistan of what they perceived as Hindu heresy.” (Ref. 5) Continuing in the steps of the their Taliban brethren, the fundamentalist Islamic extremists of ISIS have been leaving a trail of death and destruction in Iraq and Syria. In the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, they have been hard at work destroying centuries old antiquities. “Archaeologists have offered a grim assessment of the damage wrought by Islamic State militants to a museum in the Syrian city of Palmyra . . . “The museum itself was destroyed and some of its most distinctive statues were shattered by the Muslim extremists during the 10 months that ISIS controlled the town before being expelled last month. The militants had cut off the heads and hands of statues and demolished others before being driven out of the city. - - - “. . . Islamic State militants demolished three ancient arches in Palmyra, as part of their campaign to obliterate important historic monuments across the territories of Iraq and Syria. - - - “The Islamic State believed the pre-Islamic monuments of the region to be idolatrous. After seizing the city in May, 2015, ISIS extremists destroyed the shrine of Baal Shamin and the Temple of Bel. The Temple of Bel was 2,000 years old and regarded as the greatest jewel of Palmyra’s antiquities. - - - “The Islamic State’s systematic pillaging and demolition of cultural artifacts in the Middle East has been called the worst large-scale destruction of the region’s cultural heritage since the Second World War. [Emphasis mine] - - - “Palmyra was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and the museum was among the biggest tourist attractions in Syria. Prior to Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011, Palmyra attracted 150 thousand tourists a year. (Ref. 6) In Iraq, ISIS fanatics have been destroying religious antiquities. The Islamic State attack on the holy sites of other religions is reminiscent of the Taliban destruction of 2,000 year old Buddha statues in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan valley in 2001. The Taliban Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice roamed Afghanistan destroying art. It destroyed a large number of artworks in the National Museum in Kabul. In addition to destroying Shia and Sufi mosques and tombs in its captured territory, the Islamic State has vowed to eradicate other important archaeological sites in Iraq. Moslem disregard for other religions and their associated antiquities has even extended into Israel. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the holiest site in Judaism. After the First Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE by the Babylonians, Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem in 538 BCE and completed the construction of the Second Temple in 515 BCE. Even after the Temple's destruction by Roman armies in 70 CE, the site of the Temple has remained the direction of Jewish prayer. “After September 2000, the Muslim Waqf closed off the Temple Mount entirely to any archeological oversight by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Then, in order to complete new underground mosques at the site, it removed to city garbage dumps some 13,000 tons of rubble from the Temple Mount that included archeological remnants from the First and Second Temple periods. [Emphasis mine] - - - “In 1996, Palestinian Islamic clerics changed the accepted status quo that had been preserved for generations and converted two ancient underground Second Temple period structures into a new large mosque. Both structures, known as Solomon's Stables and the Eastern Hulda Gate passageway, were never mosques before. . . . “In 1997, another ancient underground Second Temple period structure, known as the Western Hulda Gate passageway, was converted into another new mosque. “In November 1999, the Islamic clerics opened what they called an ‘emergency exit’ to the new mosque. Over three days and nights, the ‘exit’ expanded into a gaping hole, 18,000 square feet in size, and up to 36 feet deep. Thousands of tons of ancient fill from the site, subsequently found by Israeli archeologists to contain artifacts dating as early as the First Temple period, were dumped into the Kidron Valley. “In February and March 2001, an ancient arched structure built against the eastern wall of the Temple Mount enclosure was razed by bulldozers in order to further enlarge the ‘emergency gate’ of the new mosque at Solomon's Stables. - - - “Antiquities found in the {material removed from the Temple Mount} include a pillared figurine leg from the time of the First Temple; pottery from the First Temple -- the earliest identified shard is from the eighth century BCE; and pottery from the Second Temple -- including the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. “According to a Waqf worker who participated in the construction in 1996, stones with decorations and inscriptions were recut so that markings were destroyed. He said he saw writing on the stones in ancient Hebrew. He also saw 5-pointed star symbols on the stones, which we know was a Hasmonean symbol commonly found on handle seals from the second century BCE. “In the recent digging on the Temple Mount, hundreds of trucks were seen removing earth. The trucks were traced to Jerusalem's municipal garbage dump, where the material was mixed with the local garbage . . . “The following day, archeologists arrived at the new dumpsite and took samples of pottery. {An archaeologist} dated at least half of it to the Second Temple Era . . . - - - “All of the underground spaces of the Temple Mount are ancient, some possibly Canaanite, and others date from the period of the First Temple, from the days of the Hasmoneans and Herod. Some served as ancient gates to the Temple Mount, and others as purifying baths for priests who became impure. These underground spaces present a most important archeological connection for our knowledge of the Temple Mount . . .” (Ref. 7) This is but one more example of the willful destruction of items of historical and religious importance to others by Moslems. Whenever Muslims talk about Islam's contributions to civilization, they point to the great Muslim poets, philosophers and scientists, of a bygone era, the so-called Islamic Golden Age, that spanned the 8th to the 14th century. There may be no denying the fact that these were great Muslims who made significant contributions to human society. But what if anything of significance has Islam contributed in the last 600 years? I can point to absolutely nothing. As Sam Harris, a popular critic of Islam, said in reference to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education activist, she is “the best thing to come out of the Muslim world in 1,000 years.” (Ref. 3) The world of mainstream Islam does not appear to be conducive to change or progress. The inescapable fact is that Islam has contributed nothing to the modern world in a thousand years. Quite the opposite. Islam’s extremist element has, in fact, only destroyed, killed, raped, and enslaved in modern times. Today, it is attempting to turn back the pages of time some 1400 years. Those are the gifts that Islam and the Arab peoples have given to the modern world. In part 2, we will turn to the State of Israel and see what, if anything, that nation and its peoples have contributed to our modern society. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- References:
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| 17 June 2016 {Article 253; Islam_22} |