Yet look at today. Few would argue that the PRC is the most advanced country on the planet. The same with India. Although you could argue that the inference of Muslims during Mughul rule interrupted Indian science, in a way even that was a golden age in Indian history. Much of the subcontinent was unified--something that was relatively rare up to that point. The Taj Mahal was made during that era. As for China, the Muslim argument doesn't hold. Islam has had only limited impact on Chinese development, though there were some Muslims in China (there were also Christians). Most of the advanced world was about the same until the European "discovery" of the Americas which brought in huge amounts of resources, and impetus for further discovery (encountering new foods, medicines, etc.), and then later the Industrial Revolution in northern Europe and the United States. Then was when the West shot far ahead of the rest of the world--and figuratively China, India, and the Islamic world were kept in the dust.