DEAR EDITOR

Jumping on the bandwagon of recent islamophobic jibes against Muslims, the right wing former spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in a recent conference in America, defended the Popes recent remarks saying,

“Why do we always have to say sorry and they never do?” When questioned about what he was referring to, he said, “I have never heard a Muslim say sorry for having conquered Spain and occupying it for eight centuries.”

Shamefully, the ignorance in this statement, like so many others are made by individuals who select the parts of history which suit their own prejudices.

This is a ‘blind spot in history’ In the modern age of enlightenment few people became aware of the significant contributions made by the Islamic world to the progress of humanity.

Yet for more than five centuries the Islamic civilisation not only led the world in science, but was the only portion of mankind actively engaged in the systematic pursuit of knowledge. Beginning with the rise to power of Baghdad in the mid-eighth century, science and education flourished under Muslim influence. No such activity characterised any other part of the contemporary world.

The lights of Graeco-Roman culture had been extinguished and Europe was engulfed in the Dark Ages; India was languishing in a period of stagnation; and China, while blossoming richly in the arts, was almost wholly devoid of science.

Muslims should not accept history books which concentrate only on the rise and fall of empires, or the clash of nations, but should search out books which trace the rise of civilization itself.

Iain Ahmed (Retired history teacher - Glasgow)