The relationship between Islamic and pre-Islamic, Arab and non-Arab civilizations in the Near East, is not dissimilar from that of Christian and pre-Christian or Germanic and Mediterranean civilizations in Europe.
One could also look at the last 400 years of Chinese or Indian history and be unimpressed, but this would be to miss their great achievements in premodern times.
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Our civilization has had many great achievements, but we ourselves aren't in most cases responsible for them, and our generation or our children's could be the one that lets the whole heritage go smash. Remembering what came out of Babylon or Mesapotamia millenia ago, may help to keep our heads from swelling too much.
During the Cold War, "East minus West equals Zero" was a book which charged that all of the Soviet Union's technology had come from the West. One could see the point, but it's also true that at the same time, our missile and nuclear experts also tended to be from Europe. The problem with the thesis was that it tended to make people smug and self-satisfied and content to rest on their laurels and condescend to others. Familiarizing ourselves with Russia's great art and literature or with Chinese or Southeast Asian culture would have been better than assuming that we had all the answers to the world's problems and bumbling into Vietnam.