Why Islam Matters To Western Culture

Over the 100 years that Islam expanded, the Arabs collected a wealth of science, philosophy and arts from lands they had conquered as they grew. By the tenth century, nearly all Greek texts were translated into Arabic as a result of the Translation Movement. They preserved a lot of Greek works that would have been lost otherwise. At the time they were thought of as the greatest scholars because of all of the knowledge they combined from different countries. For example, the Greeks liked geometry, and the Hindus liked algebra and arithmetic, so the Arabians developed a combination of both called trigonometry, used for astronomical purposes with the ratios called trigonometric functions. The Islamic people contributed to transmission of knowledge in Europe by all of the writing they had sought after to make their own. It gave them so much more information than other countries. As more expansion occurred, the Greek scientific writings moved westward through the Islamic world and reached Spain by the 9th century.

The rise of Islam brought many important changes to Europe, both physically and culturally. Through the many conquests of Muhammad and his successors, Muslim dominion, by the middle of the eighth century, included all of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, as well as Spain. Spain would serve as a point of invasion for Islamic forces into Western Europe and it would continue to serve as an Islamic state up until 1492 when its last territory (Granada) fell to Christian forces. Muslim control of the regions south and east of the Mediterranean led to their domination of the Mediterranean sea and all the European trade that went on there. All of this contributed to a deep mistrust of Islam from Europeans, which would make way for the persecutions

The Crusades, a series of wars, are an extremely important part of history in the 12th century, occurring during the Middle Ages. The Middle East or the Holy Land was always a place that Christians traveled to to make pilgrimages. The Seljuk Turks eventually took control of Jerusalem and all Christians were not allowed in the Holy City. As the Turks power grew, they threatened to take over the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople. The Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I, asked Pope Urban II for help and Pope agreed, hoping to strengthen his own power. He He united the Christians in Europe and In 1095, Pope Urban II waged waged war against muslims in order to “reclaim the holy land.”

Patrick Geary’s “Readings in Medieval History” contains four accounts of the invasion of the Middle East by the Europeans in 1095 A.D. These accounts all cite different motives for the first crusade, and all the accounts are from the perspective of different sides of the war. The accounts all serve to widen our perspective, we hear from the Christian and Middle Eastern side of the conflict. Fulcher of Chartres claims, Pope Urban the Second urged all Christians to intervene in the “East” at the council of Claremont, saying it was a sign of “Strength of good will”. (Readings in Medieval History, Geary, page 396).

This part of the story began, not in the Americas, nor in Europe, but in the Middle East. Carrying the message of the new prophet Mohammed out of the Arabian Peninsula, Muslims began making major inroads into western Asia and northern Africa in the seventh century, eventually encroaching on Europe’s southern and eastern frontiers. In 1095, Pope Urban II responded to a request for aid from the Byzantine emperor, whose dominions were under attack by Muslim invaders, launching the era of the Crusades. For two centuries, European-based Christians battled with Muslims in the Holy Lands and elsewhere. For the elite classes who engaged in crusading, provincialism died away, replaced by new information and contacts in the wider world. Soon Europeans would begin turning this new knowledge and these new tools against the people from whom they were appropriated.

“For nine and a half centuries, the textbooks have repeated, almost word for word, with mechanical regularity, that the cause, or at least the immediate cause, of the Crusades was the Turkish conquest of the Near East, which they say constituted a very real threat to Christendom, that had to be countered by military action.” (Cahen)

There are many ways that the Islam and “The West” can be seen as competing global systems between 1500 and 1800. By the late 17th century, Islamic power began to retreat while the European economic and military imperialism began to rise. The main focuses to European success, were the nation wide support systems for their naval and their very condescending warships. The Portuguese were singularly active along the West coast of India and Islamic influence remained strong because of their comparison with the native populations. Muslim control of the "Spice Islands" and many different neighboring regions was shown by the success of Acheh, an Islamic state on the northeastern part of Sumatra. It provided a counterbalance to the Portuguese existence

When Islam began to spread eastward into North Africa and Spain, Christians began to react. The Turkish Muslims were getting too close for comfort, so Christians decided to go on the defense. They were headed straight for the Byzantine Empire, and they did not want them to invade. They decided that they needed to stop the spread of Islam and take their lands back (Davis).

The Crusades are commonly classified as an act of Christian aggression against the weakened and fractured Muslims. There are many mistakes with this view, the Crusades were not against Arabs specifically, despite what is commonly believed. As mentioned in “Our Worlds Story” and some others, the Arabs were under attack by a steppes horde from Asia called the Seljuk Turks. The Seljuk and Arabs, despite both being Sunni Muslims had been in conflict against each other since the late 900’s. The Seljuk Turks expanded swiftly through the Middle East and Anatolia, the heartland of the East Romans, known as the Byzantines. Now, during the 1090’s Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire became under attack by the Seljuk, the Seljuk had also been treating Christians and Jewish harshly which is a sharp contradiction from the Arabs, co-existing with Judaism and Christianity due to their roots as Abrahamic religions. This is just the beginning of the Turkish reign of terror throughout the Middle ages to the fall of the Ottomans, slaughtering, Greek Orthodox Christians in Armenia, Georgia and parts of the Balkans, along with Arab Muslims, Shia Muslims, Hindu Indians, and Zoroastrians, which were nearly wiped out (out of the top 3 countries India, the United States, and Iran, with the highest Zoroastrian population, equals about 139,000 people, despite being the dominant religion in Iran for a millennia.) (Cohen)

Having once been persecuted for their beliefs, our founding fathers wrote the United States Constitution with the concept of religious freedom functioning as an integral bulwark of the new nation. This value would be easily implemented in an ideal world, but tolerance is a skill we must develop and be conscious of. Driven by fear, recent atrocities committed by a small group of radical Islamists have caused for public opinion to view all Muslims in a negative light. Many believe that the simple solution to protecting the safety of our nation is to stamp out the influence of Islam in America entirely, by banning Muslims from entering our country and eliminating them from the public eye. In theory, conducting religious tests during immigration

Though there is a seemingly massive amount of people who have just now come out with anti-Islam sentiments, it is clear that this is not really the case. Citing the radical policy suggestions and bans suggested by Donald Trump, there is also reference to American history and how the citizens of America are, unlike Europe and Asia, products of immigrants who chose to come to America (aside from slaves and Native Americans). Citing journalist Rose Wilder Lane in 1936, they take her quote that says Americans are “The most reckless and lawless of peoples…we are also the most imaginative, the most temperamental, the most infinitely varied” . The idea is not that American ethnocentrism is a product of immigrants establishing a hierarchy to benefit those that are in the majority. The report also provides a chart that encompasses attitudes of Muslims toward Americans and Americans toward Muslims (Figure 5) . From the chart we can see that Muslims have a significantly more negative view of Americans than Americans do of them, which again can be attributed to media attention and different international decisions that affect the world. Though the report it is obvious that there is a disconnect between those that agree with the discrimination of Muslims in society and those that oppose it. But from the report is seems rather clear that the rise is ISIS, the Presidential election, and the United States call for surveillance on Muslims have created a sense of distrust among those that

the government and media. I believe that people running this country are Anti Islamic due to there view on things. Also this is a Zionist country, which is another reason that makes the media discriminate against the Muslim’s, due to the conflict with Palestine and other Muslim countries. The media has always portrayed Islam in a negative way. The reason the media is biased when it comes to Islam because they hate the Islamic structure and the beliefs. The majority of media conglomerate ownership is of people who

As history continues, many religions have had an over powering effect on western civilization. When the 5th century arose, the religion, Islam, had an extremely important impact on the civilization. Muhammad, an Arabic prophet founded Islam and began to introduce it the people of his time. Diplomacy, violence, warfare, public laws, and Arabic tradition played a crucial role in the building of the Islamic religion. These important aspects helped shape and build the Islam religion that is now one of the world’s most widely practiced religions.

Muslim culture generally reflects the traditions and customs of Muslims that they adopt for a perfect and respectable life in the society according to the lessons of Quran. Muslim culture is a giant combination of diverse cultures, That’s because Muslims live in various countries all over the world. Most of the practices are common faiths and guidance for all Muslims no matter what country or even content they reside in.. These basic faiths and belives are based on the teachings of Islam. The Muslim culture is a subject of debate for many people who lives in different parts of the world and belong to diverse communities. Muslim culture represents the unification of brotherhood where all Muslims are bound to

Most people have seen a woman walking down the street or in a mall clad in what appears to be scarves wrapped around her head, covering her hair, ears, and neck. In some situations these women even have a veil covering up most of their face. This is becoming a common occurrence in the United States as the Islamic population grows. Some may view this as a way to make these women subservient, making it seem like they don’t have an identity or a voice. This leaves many to wonder why they would wear such a thing in modern America where women are treated as equals and do have a voice. The truth behind the headscarf does