"How would it affect your world view to accept that perhaps other cultures offered inventions, or at the very least maintained scientific thought and processes, while the West was going through dark times."
Not in the least. My ancestors were Kaisaroi in the Despotate of Morea and one died on the walls of Constantiople next to Constantine XI on May 29, 1453. Others were slaughtered or hauled off to slavery when the Turks burst into Agia Sophia during the final Divine Liturgy there. That the West did or did not fall into barbariam during the Dark Ages means little or nothing to me. It does mean something to me, however, when revisionists with a political agenda deny the history of my people.
Who's denying the history of 'your' people? 'My' people were from the Allemanni and fought the Romans in the 2nd century. So what? Should I claim some sort of 'political agenda' on the ongoing destruction of Allemanni region from the French and the Germans? Or that the Allemanni really invented what the Romans are credited for? This isn't a 'political agenda'. It is stated fact from historical data that the Islamic culture contributed somewhat to Western culture. Either by maintaining what was already known in science, improving on existing inventions (as in the case of the astrolabe), or new inventions or processes altogether (distillation of ethanol)