Islam had a 500 year head start on the West in science and math. Then they collapsed. The intellectual squalor of Islam is it's own faulty choice.

Dennis Larkin, Omaha, KS, USA

Any doubter of Islam's accomplishments in the past need only visit the sublime Alhambra in Spain. That being said, will someone enlighten me as to what contributions they have made to art, architecture, science, mathamatics, medicine, music, engineering, philosophy, literature or anything else of value in the last five centuries?

Clement R Knorr, Tucson, Arizona,

As usual, no mention of India, where the Arabs learned everything they then used and spread into the West. Same as the Greeks and their metaphysics, etc. All from India. Every religion sprang from the eternal Vedas, as well.

hp, austin, tx

The article is pretty much on point. But I think make the mistake of confusing Arab culture withe Islamic culture. They are really two different things.

The Middle East became a cultural wasteland when the religion of the of the middle east became so stringent.

Eric, Gainesville,

The world owe the Muslims and Islam big time for their contribution to all the sciences and Humanity period.Any Yahoo who will contest this need only put aside the cap of arrogance and study the true unbiased history.
Truth be told, the muslims excelled in Hygiene and introduced the use of soap.

Undoubtedly, The Jews and Christians played a role because the Muslims did not exclude them from their research.Fact....The first university is Al Azhar in Cairo Egypt.The Jews and Christians studied there.And why not.
Islam teaches that we all came from one pair- adam and Eve, news flash-- we are brothers and sisters in humanity.

Let's stop fighting each other and cooperate for the good of Mankind.

Saeed Khan, Fla, Usa

The muslims took from those they conquered. Mainly the Jews and Christians. They were not particularly inventive, as their religion stifles new thought. Don't be so quick to praise them for all their technological advances, for the most part, it wasn't muslims who came up with the ideas, it was those they ruled.

read: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades.

Jim, Charleston, South Carolina / CSA

James

Don't be so paranoid. It's not hidden history. I learnt it at school while studying Greek. The debt we owe to the Islamic world in preserving (and extending) the work of the Greeks in mathematics and geometry (and much besides) has long been acknowledged.

Laky

Learn to use apostrophes if you want to be taken seriously (or indeed, understood at all)

John, Tokyo,

Why are you so surprised, what we have in the West now is mostly based on Islamic teachings from Spanish Muslims (Moors). Al-bruni, Ibn Khaldun, Kwarazimi, ibn Sina (Averroes), Ibn Rushd and many many more were great Islamic scientists, mathematicians, philosophers etc. This is hidden history. Medieval times were when Islamic sciences flourished but this history is not taught in the West to preserve the Islamophobic prejudices against Arab, Muslims and Islam. It is as if we jumped from the time of Jesus to 1942 and medieval times never existed! Western renaissance was based on the foundation of Islamic sciences.

For instance did you know a Muslim mathematician, called Al-Kindi was the first documented hacker? He wrote the first ever book on crypto-analysis circa 925 AD

If you want know what you missed checkout http://www.muslimheritage.com/

James Kramer, London, UK

If anyone's interested in having a look at how to generate Penrose tilings under Windows, I wrote the following for my University degree some time ago: http://www.stephencollins.net/web/penrose/

Stephen Collins, Stamford, USA

Mr Lu as lived a somewhat sheltered life, it seems.

I find information like that on google videos when researching islamic culture and history, in particular I remember one documentary by the BBC, it was very good.

You can find this kind of art work in Spain, its copied mostly, but it's learned and its still there. History!!

One thing I have come to find is that the human brain doesn't tend to reject mathematics.. I cant prove it, but its less common than what we class as ''illiterate'', someone who cant read and write?? Is that correct ..? Maybe something to think about.

Laky, Birmingham,

Show me a picture, please..

Ken Booker, Rochester, New York USA

that's great guys.

Thomas Magnum, London,