It might also be noted that even when the culture of Islam was relatively advanced compared to the culture of Christianity (about seven hundred to twelve hundred years ago) many of the advancements in medicine that have been credited to Islam during that period were actually accomplished by Jewish doctors living within the culture of Islam as second class citizens.

During Arab Islam’s rise the works of the classic Greek philosophers and scientists were translated into Arabic since the Arabs considered them to be worthy of study. The Arabs then advanced beyond the foundation of the Greek astronomer’s ideas to name but one example of Arab Islam’s contribution.

During that time Arab culture adopted the Hindu culture’s numerals leading us to call numerals that are actually of Hindu origin Arabic numerals. The concept of zero often credited to the Arabs is also of Hindu origin though to the credit of the culture of Arab Islam there were important advancements that they made with the concept after embracing it.

Since inventing algebra about seven hundred years ago the culture of Arab Islam has contributed very little if anything of note to the advancement of the human knowledge.

Perhaps never in the history of man has a people’s sense of their culture’s greatness been less justified in the present than in the case of Arab Islam. The culture of Arab Islam has been in decline since their advance in the Iberian Peninsula began to be reversed by the Christians. That was almost seven hundred years ago and almost two hundred years before the Moors were finally expelled from Andalusia.

For many in Arab Islam their present response to their decline is to blame the Jews. If we are to believe that the Jews have stopped Arab Islam doesn’t it necessarily follow that the supposedly great culture of Arab Islam can be stopped. And if we conclude that it can be stopped (especially by such a small group who is asserted to be inferior) doesn’t intellectual honesty oblige us to question Arab Islam’s claim of greatness. Since Islam is supposedly based on the last inspired word of G-d how is one to resolve the conundrum of the advance of the final word of an omnipotent G-d being reversed? Perhaps we should consider the possibility that the standard bearers have corrupted the original message and should no longer trusted.

Arab Islam once embraced reason and the ideas of other cultures including the Jews, Greeks, Hindus and others. In fact reason demands that one be willing to at least consider the ideas of others. So many in Arab Islam now hate the West. The contrary voices in Arab Islam are faint by comparison. This makes it virtually impossible for Arab Islam as a culture to accept reason and good ideas from outside the culture insuring its continued general stagnation and decline. Arab Islam is on a path 180 degrees opposite the path that it once followed to advancement.

Never has a culture achieved greatness by blaming its lack thereof on others. Cultures that advance embrace reason and good ideas from other cultures. Rome embraced Greek ideas. Italy, where the Renaissance began, embraced ideas from Muslim Sicily. The United States founders embraced the ideas of the English John Locke. Because the trajectory of Arab Islam away from reason and the good ideas of other cultures is exactly opposite the path of all cultures that eventually achieved greatness (including itself in the past) we must regrettably conclude that the Renaissance of Arab Islam if it is ever to occur must lie in the future.

For now Arab Islam represents a plague in the global village. The argument that the theocratic fascists don’t speak for all of Islam is perhaps true but completely beside the point. The body of Islam is gravely ill and represents a threat to itself and its neighbors. If that body lacks the will or capacity to purge itself of its sickness and continues to resist offers of help, the fact that parts of the body are healthy is irrelevant to the present risk the sick parts represent to the health of the community of man. An immigration policy based on the principle of quarantine is certainly warranted.

What a frighteningly long and deep decline of a culture. What a tremendously scary fall from grace. What a pathetic self inflicted waste of human potential.

Surely Allah weeps.