'Muslim science' fiction

NY Post ^ | July 10, 2010 | Rich Lowry

[Scanian]

In the 16th century, astrono mer Taqi al-Din built one of the world's great observato ries in Istanbul. It rivaled that of pioneering Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe -- while it lasted.

"Taqi al-Din's observatory was razed to the ground by a squad of Janissaries, by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of the Chief Mufti," Bernard Lewis writes in his book "What Went Wrong?" "This observatory had many predecessors in the lands of Islam; it had no successors until the age of modernization."

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden caused a furor when he revealed that President Obama had directed him "to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science . . . and math and engineering."

This shouldn't be hard to do, so long as Bolden is well-versed in accomplishments rising out of the Middle East many centuries ago. It gave us what we know as Arabic numerals, although they originated in India.

[aruanan]

Many of their other “inventions” and “discoveries” were basically extrapolations of prior work of the Greek, Hindus and Persians, and others, from manuscripts that ended up in their hands after Europe purged their versions during the Dark Ages.

That makes it sound as though there was a transfer of manuscripts from Europe to the Muslims during the Dark Ages; rather, what was lost to Europe during that time remained in the hands of the conquerers of those Middle Eastern (and other) societies.

[dennisw]

Even if the Muslims took advanced architecture ideas from conquered peoples at least they executed well and built impressive mosques. Their tiling work is beautiful and impressive. One of the few things of beauty I see in Muslim civilization

It seems that the populations lived in misery but great expenses and efforts were made to build glorious mosques for their fake Allah and their false prophet

[Flag_This]

[livius]

The early Moslems did most of the conquering with Byzantine armies and Byzantine navies ~ who they paid!

Yes, that's true.

Also, North Africa itself had long supplied mercenaries to other states or kings, and hiring an army was quite an acceptable practice in all of those societies. The first Muslim armies that invaded Spain were actually mercenaries hired by a Visigothic king to defeat his rivals. Needless to say, he was one of the first people killed, and then the Muslims simply pushed their way into Spain from the Mediterranean coast.

Nobody at the time understood the fact that this new cult meant that hiring North African mercenaries was no longer a good idea...

[djf]

They have the best cutlery in the uncivilized world!!

[aruanan]

All you need to understand how a bunch of un-educated guys dressed in last year's rags were able to move out of Arabia and conquer Damascus is note that even Byzantium hadn't paid its troops in over a century when the legions met the guys from Mecca.

The early Moslems did most of the conquering with Byzantine armies and Byzantine navies ~ who they paid!

The Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula had long served as mercenaries for both Rome and Persia in their internecine conflict. It was the advent of a plague originating in Africa that weakened both Rome and Persia to the extent that they didn't need/couldn't afford these mercenaries who, organized by Mohammed under the banner of Islam, took advantage of the weakened North African/Mediterranean world and swept through it like a plague, concentrating not on rule but on plunder (look at the letter back to Caliph Omar at central command, so to speak, listing all the houses and other stuff to be had in Alexandria: "I have captured a city from the description of which I shall refrain. Suffice it to say that I have seized therein 4000 villas with 4000 baths, 40,000 poll-tax paying Jews and four hundred places of entertainment for the royalty"), not too distant from when Muawiyah, your namesake, the first Arab governor of Palestine, was made the first Omayyad Caliph of Damascus.

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

My understanding is that nearly all of this the Muslims took from the Greeks or the Hindus.

Wrong? Right?

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

Great GIF

[muawiyah]

There were always plagues, but the world economy had been in freefall since 541 AD. The Plague of Justinian started about then, of course, but the volcanos did their job in 535 AD and destroyed the Northern and Western European economies. The civilizations around the Mediterranean began suffering and finally their economies faltered.

For a variety of reasons the people working the caravans from Petra to Mecca to Medina had remained relatively isolated from these other devastating events, or, most likely, they were affected equally but didn't realize it due to their normally deep level of poverty and their physical isolation from the Mediterranean world.

There are interesting debates regarding the degree of European depopulation. First of all no one doubts that millions died from the plague and whatever the weather anomaly was that gave Western and Northern Europeans an incentive to burn almost every piece of furniture, parchment or other burnable in a short period from 535 to 541. Secondly, back in the days before unemployment insurance, modern machinery, food surpluses, trucks, trains, cars etc. it didn't take much of a disaster for darned near everybody near it to die if only from simple starvation.

Thirdly, there are "secondary diseases" that take the opportunity to kill under these conditions.

Whatever, the death rates were different in different places. The Eastern Empire lost just under half its people. The Western Empire probably lost over half along the Mediterranean and more like 90% in the NW.

The Arabs in the peninsula didn't know anything of this.

BTW, the invasion of the Mediterranean civilization didn't begin until AFTER Mohammad was dead and AFTER Petra was converted. You should note the name of that place ~ it's in Jordan. They appear to have gone cash at the beginning of the disaster and could pay hard money for whatever the Moslem commanders needed.

If the Arabs had been Roman Catholic Monks the outcome would have been the same!

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

“they invented algebra”
Probably just gave it a catchy name. Just like Al Cohol.

Good one !!!

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

Thanks

[aruanan]

My understanding is that nearly all of this the Muslims took from the Greeks or the Hindus.

Right. It was intellectual plunder from conquered nations, preserved, though scarcely built upon. And who knows how much was lost when some ruler or cleric got a bug up their asses about what another ruler or cleric possessed or declared that everything not in the Koran or in the hadith (or in their version of the Koran or hadith) was satanic and had to be destroyed?

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

There are a number of these mysteries.

Tom Fife

John Drew

Tom Adams

Race Bannon met him

Etc

[Smokin' Joe]

Muslims seem to have an odd conception of the Big Bang theory.

Yeah. Somehow, it seems so much more personal with them...

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

For example

They have always said that "they don't give Christmas gifts to the children" and "they don't give birthday gifts" which I am told is what Muslims do.

No Christmas presents.

Tree with Mao on it.

No church.

Rev Wright is an ex Muslim

50% of his "g-d America" church was Muslim

Records in Indonesia show him taking in Arabic Muslim classes reserved for the most feverent believers ...

----------------------

Egyptian minister: Obama told me he is a Muslim

""The Muslim Call to Prayer is one of the Prettiest Sounds on Earth" - said Barack Obama to the New York Times

http://infidelsarecool.com/2008/04/07/jeremiah-wright-former-muslim/ Allah is greater than any description 
I testify that there is no deity except for Allah 
I testify that Muhammad is a Messenger of Allah 
Make haste towards the prayer 
Make haste towards the worship 
Prayer is better than sleep 
Allah is the greatest! 
There is no deity except for Allah

As others noted:

From the NYT article (original now scrubbed!):

"Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated, ... Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”
************************

I too thought he was reciting the call to morning prayers.

But, it seems to others more knowledgeable than me, that this call is also an oath to Islam and that if you say it, or wish to convert, this is what you say and THIS IS WHAT he did say:

============================

The first few lines from the "call to prayer" is the shahada. The shahada is not from the koran. It is from the hadiths. Furthermore, it is the SWEARING OF AN OATH to islam. Non-Muslims wishing to convert to Islam do so by a public recitation of the creed.

It is also an oath EVEN if you are tricked or forced into reciting it and even if you wish to renounce it, you can NOT do so without fear for your life.

It goes like this:
"Ash-hadu -an-la-ilaha illal-laha, wa ash-hadu anna Mohammad-an Abdo-hu wa Rasulo-uhu wa ash-hadu anna moulana ali-un –vasi-un wa vazir-ah.”


It literally means:
"I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and I bear witness that Mohammad is Allah's servant and His Messenger, and Ali is his successor ’vasi’ and minister ‘vazir’".

And it ALSO means that obama knew exactly what he was saying, knew exactly what it meant, and had no qualms about calling it the most beautiful sound on earth. As with most things, it was a message to his brethren and a finger in the eye of what obama considers stupid Americans.

If after what you have seen; if after what you now know about obama and his policies, here and elsewhere, and you still question whether obama is a muslim, you are too stupid to live.

http://infidelsarecool.com/2008/04/07/jeremiah-wright-former-muslim/

"""""""

[Rodamala]

So, when will NASA reach out to the Amish and Mennonites?

[dennisw]

Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

Having heard that sound myself many times in Iraq, I can assure you there is nothing "pretty" about it. It's damned creepy, actually.

It is obviously intended to intimidate non-Muslims and to mark off Muslim territory the ways dogs mark off territory. I'll bet competing mosques mark off territory. Lastly it calls the zombies to self-brainwash themselves five times per day

Any place in America that a mosque blasts out this call to prayer....Americans will leave and Muslims will move in. No American wants to be subjected to that shyte five times per day

[DontTreadOnMe2009]

Real presidents don’t bow.

True !!!

[snowsislander]

He also claimed that the Arabic, Islamic call to prayer is the ‘most beautiful sound’ one could ever hear, or so I’ve read from threads here and beyond.

It was in the New York Times of March 6, 2007, in the article Obama: Man of the World by Nicholas Kristof. The link is http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/opinion/06kristof.html. The relevant portion of the article:

“I was a little Jakarta street kid,” he said in a wide-ranging interview in his office (excerpts are on my blog, www.nytimes.com/ontheground). He once got in trouble for making faces during Koran study classes in his elementary school, but a president is less likely to stereotype Muslims as fanatics — and more likely to be aware of their nationalism — if he once studied the Koran with them.

Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

Nobody with the Kenyan Clown's background would ever dare utter the shahada unless he was a muslim. He knows quite well that such a public utterance is a clear profession of one's muslim faith.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

You will not convince any one any thing. There are many here are so insecure about their own beliefs they tirelessly look under rocks to find fragments that might undermine their beliefs.

K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... The winds of war are freshening

Huh?? Bert, are you inhaling fumes in a cave somewhere?