Sure there were. Although they held on to fragments of Classical learning, they weren't widely shared with the populace. But you're right in the sense that the traditions of Greece and Rome were not ever entirely lost there.
The knowledge of the Greeks continued to be known by the Arabs and was brought by them to Spain where it was preserved and translated into Arabic.
Yes, and they reaped a substantial benefit. Recommended reading.
The question then is, given that this knowledge was so key to the development of political thought, why did it not produce a political renaissance leading to our ideas about freedom and human rights among the Arabs ?
That's a great question, although I will point out that the artistic, scientific, economic, and cultural achievements of Islam beat the socks off Christendom throughout the period, and produced a far more tolerant and free society in comparison, all the way up to the Renaissance.
A better question, however, is how the Byzantine Empire itself, with its access to Classical traditions and its Christian religion, failed to produce a free society. I don't know whether life in Byzantium was any better than in Europe at the time. Probably the government was too repressive. At any rate, Christianity didn't seem to get too far in our direction.
Anyway, we're getting pretty far off-topic, unless someone wants to steer this in the direction of, "you have to accept Christian intolerance, because without Christianity there'd be no tolerance," or suchlike.