Yes, more from How the West Won

You know by now I think How the West Won, by Rodney Stark, is a terrific book that people should know. He rips up myths about our Western history which have been perpetrated in order to make Christianity look bad. Here we go on another section summarizing his book.

My favorite chapter in this section was 14: "Exposing Moslem Illusions." He says there are too many politically correct myths about Islam, including the claim that once upon a time Islamic science and technology were far superior to that of a backward and intolerant Europe. He starts with discussing the vicious nature of the Islamic invasions of various lands. For example, when Constantinople fell in 1453, what followed was mass slaughter and enslavement.

But he spends more time on the illusions about Islamic culture. He says the typical story is that while Europe slumbered through the "Dark Ages," science and learning flourished in Islam. Here's the heart of his response to this – to the extent that Muslim elites acquired a sophisticated culture, they learned from their subject peoples. It was the Judeo-Christian/Greek culture of Byzantium, combined with the remarkable learning of small Christian groups, plus extensive knowledge from Persia as well as great mathematical achievements of the Hindus that made up the so-called sophisticated culture often attributed to Muslims. Even the highly acclaimed Muslim architecture turns out to have been mainly an achievement of the conquered people from Persia and Byzantium. For example, when a caliph wanted to build the Dome of the Rock shrine in Jerusalem, he employed Byzantine architects and craftsmen. Many of the Muslim world's most famous scholars were Persians, not Arabs. The so-called Arabic numerals were entirely of Hindu origin.

Many Western writers have stressed the Arab possession of the classical writers, assuming that by having access to the wisdom of the ancients, Islam was a much superior culture. Here's the problem, according to Stark. Access to Greek scholarship had a negative impact on Arab scholarship. When they read the works of Plato and Aristotle, they did not treat these works as attempts by Greek scholars to answer various questions. Instead, Muslim intellectuals read them the same way they read the Koran – as settled truths to be understood without question or contradiction. In contrast, knowledge of Aristotle's work prompted experimentation and discovery among the early Christian scholastics. They valued innovation and correction.

He ends this chapter by taking on another myth of the Muslims – that in contrast with Christian brutality against Jews and heretics, Islam showed remarkable tolerance for conquered people, treated them with respect, and allowed them to pursue their faiths without interference. The truth is quite different. Stark says it is true that the Koran forbids forced conversions, but that doesn't mean much given that many subject peoples were often allowed to choose conversion as an alternative to death or enslavement. Jews and Christians were supposed to be tolerated and permitted to follow their faiths, but this was allowed only under quite repressive conditions. Death was (and remains) the fate of any Muslim who converted to either faith. No new churches or synagogues could be built. Jews and Christians were prohibited from praying or reading their Scriptures aloud, even in their homes or in churches or synagogues, less Muslims should accidentally hear them. Muslim authorities went to great lengths to humiliate and punished Jews and Christians who refused to convert to Islam. They imposed restrictive laws on Christians and Jews. Their taxes were severe in comparison with Muslims. Starting in the 1300s, mobs began destroying Christian churches throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Syria.

So, again Stark has shown the deliberate rewriting of history, done to put down the Christian West. Thanks for the truth, Mr. Stark.