Discoveries Arabs Never Made

Islam's contribution to world culture in 1915
*See end note about this picture

The title of this post was going to be "The Culture of the West vs that of Islam". But then I thought: Culture? Islam has a culture"?

Saying "the culture of the West versus the culture of Islam suggests two cultures put on the same level, as if they were two parallel entities. Two realities of equal weight and value." (Oriana Fallaci)

In her book, The Rage and the Pride, famously known as "a sermon to the West", Oriana Fallaci says, "Behind our Western culture there is Homer, there is Pheidias, there is Socrates, there is Plato, there is Aristotle, there is Archimedes. There is ancient Greece with its divine sculpture and architecture and poetry and philosophy, with its principle of democracy. 

"There is Ancient Rome with all its grandeur, its universality, its concept of the Law, its palaces, its amphitheaters its aqueducts, its streets built all over the then known world. There is Jesus who died on the cross to teach us the concept of love and justice. There is also a Church...there is Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raffello, Lorenzo il Magnifico...There is also Erasmus, and Montaigne and Thomas More and Cartesius.

Is Islam an Abrahamic Faith?

Abraham and the Angels
Arent de Gelder,  1680-1685

The Story of Abraham, the First Muslim

Islam is strictly and spiritually a Muhammadan faith, and as such, has no claim to Abraham as its spiritual founder, therefore is not an Abrahamic Faith. In addition, it is Islamic tradition that Muhammad descended from Abraham's son Ishmael, however, this also does not mean that the religion Muhammad founded is an Abrahamic Faith, for religion and faith are of the soul, spiritual and transcendent, and not transmittable by bloodline.

Who is Muhammad's Angel Gabriel?

The Angel of Peace - Fatima

The Story of Muhammad 

and Gabriel the Genie

Could those who blindly follow Muhammad as their heaven-sent prophet and leader and adhere to Islam as the one divinely revealed religion and the only true way to salvation possibly be deceived by Satan?

City Journal, Spring 2004, published an article by Theodore Dalrymple, titled When Islam Breaks Down. Dalrymple said, “No Muslim in an Islamic society would dare to suggest that the Koran was not divinely dictated through the mouth of the Prophet but rather was a compilation of a charismatic man’s words, and incorporating, with no very great originality, Judaic, Christian, and Zoroastrian elements.”

To be sure, Muslims believe that the Koran is of divine origin, eternal and co-existing in the very essence of Allah and is his sacred and direct word dictated in Arabic by the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad, containing Islamic revelations and doctrine. They believe that through Muhammad’s visions of the Archangel Gabriel, the Koran was revealed by installments, some at Mecca and some at Medina, over the span of twenty-three years. As the words flowed from Gabriel to the inspired lips of the Prophet Muhammad, they were written down upon palm leaves, leather or wood by his secretaries Zeid and Abdullah. 

Will Islam Complete the Takeover of the West Attempted in the Middle Ages?

Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician protesting the Islamization of the west, particularly in his own country, The Netherlands. He says Islam is not primarily a religion, but a political movement seeking world domination. He is the most threatened politician in the Netherlands and requires constant security around him because of death threats. (Interesting considering the universal mantra that Islam is a religion of peace.)

I've read both pros and cons about Wilders, but his primary political agenda is to protect the judeo-Christian and humanistic roots of Dutch culture, which doesn't seem to me to be such a bad thing. He's been demonized for producing his film on Islam and was actually prevented from entering the UK for a time. As I was researching him today I couldn't help thinking of those who tried to warn the world about the rise of Naziism which, one could argue, was as much a pseudo-religious movement, with Hitler as messiah, as a political movement. Naziism was filled with pagan religious symbols and pseudo religious ceremonies. For example, in the Lebensborns, maternity homes for young unmarried German women breeding the master race, a "naming ceremony" replaced baptism. When too many of the young women snuck into nearby towns for secret christenings, Himmler established a rule prohibiting the women to leave the homes without an SS escort.

Wilders compares the Koran to Mein Kampf. Both books have been used to justify incredible violence against innocent people, both seek world domination through the sword.

The Church fought Islam for a reason when it launched the first crusade which prevented the Muslims from dominating the West. Have the goals of Islam really changed?





Geert Wilders, European Islam and Fitna

'I don't hate Muslims. I hate Islam,' says Holland's rising political star