The implication of this statement is that peoples of Ur, Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Hittite were Arabs. I just want to clarify that they were not and are not (for the extant ones) Arabs. Arabs are Saudis, Kuwaitis and Yemenis.
My point was that Islam killed off civilizations in what is now the Middle East...The arabs (Saudis) were bringing the world advances in such things as mathematics (arabs discovered algebra) and advancing in art and literature, then BANG, along comes Mohammad and everthing came to a screeching halt!