About the time the West discovered Aristotle's Ethics and Politics in the twelfth century, Islam had reached it's peak. The top imams at the time decided that Islam would no longer use the elements of philosophy which had been their strong suit for 500 years. So in began their decline when they rejected all that they had been able to glean from the Greek philosophers.
The West then took all that the Greek civilization had and entered into the Renaissance with rather amazing results. The West left the muslims in the dust.
So, when Pope Benedict spoke at Regensburg and got lambasted by the muslims, he was only trying to invite them back to the dialogue they dismissed in the 12th century.
Great recap - thank you!
Gos bless Pope Benedict XVI.
slyfox:
It is more accurate to say re-discovered them, much of the great Greek Philosophical writings were lost to Western Christendom for a while given the Muslim advances in much of the old part of the Eastern Roman empire. As the West gradually won some territory back, it was able to re-discover these Greek writings and update translations and bring them back to the West.