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 Topic: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another Islamic intellectual on"Contribution of early Muslims"

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  • Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another Islamic intellectual on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     OP - February 24, 2011, 03:04 PM

    Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another Intellectual  on"Contribution of early Muslims"

    Quote
    Aijaz Zaka Syed is Opinion Editor and columnist of Khaleej Times, the Middle East’s oldest and largest circulated English daily published from Dubai. An award-winning journalist and widely published and read commentator, Aijaz comes from Hyderabad, India and has been with KT for more than seven years now. He writes a weekly column called View from Dubai. The column, which looks at and comments on the world affairs from a Middle Eastern and Arab-Muslim perspective, is published by  prominent international dailies like Arab News (Saudi Arabia), Middle East Times (Cairo), Palestine Chronicle (the United States), The Turkish Daily News (now called Hurriyet), Dawn (Pakistan), New Nation (Bangladesh), the Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), Radiance, Etemaad Urdu Daily (Hyderabad, India) and others.   Email: aijaz.syed@hotmail.com


    he writes quite often at at thenews.com.pkwith a heading "A dearth of ideas"   and says

    Quote
    An idea can change the world. A great deal has been written about the stark simplicity and honesty of the early believers and how the rustic, desert tribes conquered the world within two decades of the dawn of Islam. What fascinates me to no end though, is their seminal contribution to modern science and all streams of pursuit of knowledge. From astronomy to anatomy to medical science, from mathematics to chemistry to physics to navigation and philosophy to poetry, Muslims have not only left an imprint on modern science, they have shaped our world.
    Quote
    Did you, for instance, know that it was an Arab woman, Fatima al Fihri, from Morocco who founded the world’s first university?  Or that the blue print of the modern camera was created by an Iraqi scientist, Ibn Al Haitham, more than a thousand years ago? He wrote the Book of Optics that led to the invention of the camera.

    How many of us, accustomed to the comfort and speed of air travel, realise that the idea had been first tried by a curious pioneer called Abbas Ibn Firnas? With his body covered in feathers and ‘wings’ strapped to his arms, the Berber polymath took to the sky in the 9th-century in Cordoba, managing to “fly” several meters before crash landing. It was clearly a work in progress! But let’s not forget it happened a thousand years before the Wright brothers attempted their flight.

    New York these days is hosting an unusual exhibition profiling hundreds of such pioneers, from Ibn Firnas to Ibn Sena, in a long due tribute to the contribution of the Islamic civilisation. 1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World opened in the Big Apple last month, after immensely successful shows in London and Istanbul attracting 800,000 visitors, is an attempt to recreate the glory of the magical millennium, from 700 to 1700 AD, that changed the world.
    Quote
    It was during this period between the fall of Rome and the rise of the European Renaissance, that the Muslim civilisation led the world in science and technology and virtually everything else. From the humble coffee beans to the crafty game of chess to windmills to clocks to fountain pen to soap to surgical instruments and from quilting or sewing to gunpowder, the list of Muslim inventions is endless. Five-hundred years before Galileo discovered the earth was round and was duly punished for it by the Church, the Muslim scientists had established the spherical nature of the planet.


    In the empire of the faith that stretched from Spain through the Middle East to China, new ideas were constantly generated, encouraged and embraced. It’s this ferocious hunger for knowledge that took the Arabs and Muslims to great heights of power, prosperity and intellectual supremacy. They fought the battle of ideas from a position of strength, challenging reigning ideas and ideologies of the time.

    They looked for and embraced the best from around the world. Which was how the science of arithmetic from India and Greek philosophy were passed on to Europe and the rest of the world. Indeed, the Arab contribution played a critical role in the progress the West has made over the past five centuries.

    A culture of excellence coupled with their willingness to learn enabled the Muslims to conquer new lands. Muslim countries were home to scores of universities and libraries long before Oxford and Cambridge came to be founded in Europe.

    When the Mongol armies ran over the Middle East sacking eminent centres of power and learning like Baghdad, Damascus and Alexandria and killing hundreds of thousands of people, historians say that there was more ink than blood in rivers. The invaders had burnt and dumped in the river hundreds of thousands of invaluable books and rare manuscripts authored and collected over the centuries.

    How would you then explain the current intellectual stagnation? Why aren’t Muslims part of the knowledge revolution any more, let alone leading it? Have they run out of steam as a people and as a civilisation?

    It’s no coincidence that power began to slip from Muslim hands just when they stopped exploring and expanding new horizons of knowledge. Muslims haven’t produced one intellectual or scientist of the stature of Ibn Rushd and Ibn Sena, or Averroes and Avicenna, in the past many centuries. A small European nation or a backward Indian state could boast more universities today than the entire Arab world put together.

    Quote
    All we do these days is spend all our time and energy on pointless delusions of grandeur and fruitless debates. Instead of doing something constructive and positive to lift ourselves out of the dangerous intellectual morass and stagnation we are stuck in, we are busy issuing fatwas condemning each other.

    There was a time when most Arab countries did not have much by way of financial and material resources. Thankfully, that’s not the case today. Yet they are not making the most of the boom driven by the oil wealth discovered during the last century. Instead of endlessly building malls, hotels and palaces and other delusions of grandeur, shouldn’t the Arabs be investing their resources in building infrastructures of knowledge like universities, research centres, think tanks and the media? Ours is the age of knowledge.

    A war of ideas is on. And only those well prepared and equipped for it will survive this battle of hearts and minds. If for nothing else, Arab countries should make greater investments in knowledge for their restive, young generations. After all, a majority of the Middle East’s population today is young and very restive. They are growing up with a sense of purpose and direction and a keen consciousness of their place in the world. The Arab nations will ignore them at their own cost.

    There’s no dearth of talent or resources, human or material, in the Muslim world today. What it needs is original ideas and men who could translate them into reality. More important, what is needed is an opening of minds.

    well that  is what he writes., I will analyze his claims bit later  and i agree with him partially .,

    But i would like to tell him a secret here.,  Indeed there are contribution in various fields of sciences  by so-called Muslims during medieval times  But My good friend doesn't seem to realize that it is "IN SPITE OF ISLAM NOT DUE TO ISLAM"

    and he should know that,   "it is NOT rustic, desert tribal brutes that  conquered the world within two decades of the dawn of Islam contribute to the science " neither the rulers that came out of such brutality. Those contributions simply came from those Individuals who often questioned Islam,  its scriptures  and became heretics of Islam so that they can work and live without loosing their heads.

    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim
     
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #1 - February 24, 2011, 05:34 PM

       
     
      Those contributions simply came from those Individuals who often questioned Islam,  its scriptures  and became heretics of Islam so that they can work and live without loosing their heads.


    The truth, nothing but the truth! Afro
    Yes I am sure whatever achievements were made were despite of Islam not because of Islam.
    Those 'Muslim' scientists ,inventors or whoever were human beings like the rest of mankind so the probability of there being achievers in the population was roughly the same.The main thing to remember here is that they had open minds and didn't waste their time shagging over religion!
    The fact that they could do what they did despite this heavy baggage of Islam is a tribute to their greatness.
    What Islam has achieved since the so called 'Golden Age' by stifling a spirit of inquiry and dissent is there for everyone to see!




    The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
                                   Thomas Paine

    Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored !- Aldous Huxley
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Musli
     Reply #2 - February 25, 2011, 03:18 AM

    Those 'Muslim' scientists ,inventors or whoever were human beings like the rest of mankind so the probability of there being achievers in the population was roughly the same.

    No, the societies in which they lived were in a position to promote large-scale development, while others weren't.

    Not that their being Muslim made any substantial difference.

    "Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
    - Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #3 - February 25, 2011, 03:16 PM

    To my knowledg aristotle used 3 diffrent arugemtns in favour of a spreical earth and he lived long before anu muslim so how can they claim this B.S -_-.

    Though there is not denying that arabs contributed alot.




    The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars. [Carl Sagan]

    Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. [carl sagan]
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #4 - February 25, 2011, 03:43 PM

    To my knowledg aristotle used 3 diffrent arugemtns in favour of a spreical earth and he lived long before anu muslim so how can they claim this B.S -_-.

    Though there is not denying that arabs contributed alot.

    well that is point to analyze  and that is what Aijaz Zaka Syed is saying ., here is that man



    and he writes at wordpress.com  where he compares South Asian Muslims verses Sikhs, Hindus and others religious groups of Indian subcontinent

    Quote
    The shining examples of Louisiana governor Piyush Jindal, being lionised as the Republicans’ answer to Obama and a future president, and South Carolina governor Nimrata Kaur are a source of inspiration and pride not just for Hindus and Sikhs but the whole of India and Asia. There are countless such examples in the land of opportunity that is America – of Indians scaling the pinnacle of excellence in universities, research and scientific centres and Silicon Valley companies, thanks to their hard work and dedication.

    However, if Indian Hindus and Sikhs are increasingly becoming the shining face of the great American dream while their Muslim counterparts rough it out in the cold, there’s another more prosaic explanation.

    I hate to disrupt Shiv’s reverie, but if the Jindals and Kaurs of this world find themselves in US governor mansions today, and possibly on their way to the White House, they’ve had to pay a price for it. Piyush Jindal was born a Hindu to Hindu immigrant parents from Punjab. He converted to Christianity when he grew up, christening himself as Bobby Jindal. Today, he and his wife Supriya are proper churchgoing folk, like the rest of the predominantly white, genteel Christian America.

    Ditto Nimrata Kaur, who today calls herself Nikki Haley. She was born a Sikh to second-generation Sikh immigrants. Like Jindal, she converted to Christianity before joining politics. She’s married to Michael Haley and has two children, all of them nice, practicing Christians.

     what he actually is saying above is Jindals and Kaurs lost their faith converted to Christianity to  to find acceptance in white middle-class America.   so he clearly says
    Quote
    Of course, this has nothing to do with faith. Each to his or her own, and I am a firm believer in everyone doing his/her own thing. What I am trying to emphasise is the fact that both Jindal and Kaur had to give up their original identity and faith to find acceptance in white middle-class America.


    Which itself in way tells me he is a fool associating Nimrata Kaur,   Nikki Haley  and Piyush Jindal, or obama of  America leaving their parent faith and becoming Christians to find the acceptance in America to join American politics.. That is CLASSIC MUSLIM MINDSET of a fool.. he simply denying the individual abilities and hard work of  of the folks like Nimrata Kaur,   Nikki Haley  and Piyush Jindal.  That is very unfortunate from an educated fellow.

    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim
     
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #5 - February 26, 2011, 02:22 PM


    Its an interesting article, but not for what he says in it, which is mostly bog standard stuff.

    Its interesting because he is an Indian who rather than feeling a deep sense of connection with the scientific, cultural and historical achievments of ancient Indian civilisation, feels a deep concern for the demise of Arab learning and curiousity.

    So rather than taking pride in the civilisation he was born into, India, and examining ways in which India can revive its centres of learning, intellectual and cultural spirit, science etc etc, he cares more for Arab civilisations.

    What makes an Indian forsake his own civilisation and history and become a mind-slave to that of the Arab? Its actually pretty sad when you see it. Naipaul writes about this in his books Among The Believers and Beyond Belief.



    "we can smell traitors and country haters"


    God is Love.
    Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.

  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #6 - February 26, 2011, 02:47 PM

    Quote
    There’s no dearth of talent or resources, human or material, in the Muslim world today. What it needs is original ideas and men who could translate them into reality. More important, what is needed is an opening of minds.

    That is going to be a problem though. A lot of generated ideas are in direct conflict with Quran and Islam (when understood in the way that has been predominantly accepted).
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #7 - February 26, 2011, 09:07 PM

    Another Islamic intellectual writes at http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=33161&Cat=9   on

    "Islam Islamic contributions and Quest for knowledge in Islam"

    let us read a bit..
    Quote
    Socrates thought they were the voice of conscience. Iroquois Indians saw them as commands to be followed. Voltaire said they resulted from overeating. Freud defined them as repressed thoughts. James Allen called dreamers saviours of the world. This is how dreams have been described over time.

    Dreams, essentially a phenomenon affiliated with sleep, are an idea, a vision when one is awake. Throughout history, the most advanced nations earned their status by harnessing the intellectual capital and creative potential of the populace. They always advanced on the wings of knowledge, imagination and innovation.

     I say that is bullshit.. You can get better ideas when you awak and think about a problem than get some silly dream and think you are solving a problem.

    Quote
    Knowledge and ideas are the building blocks of spiritual, social, economic and political reality. The quality of life in a society manifests prevailing ideas. British author H G Wells asserted that “human history is in essence the history of ideas.” We can trace a line of ideas from antiquity to present-day civilisation.

    Every invention and advancement, from penicillin to the microchip, sprung from an idea. That is why Archimedes rushed out of his bath tub yelling Eureka and an apple falling on Newton’s head gave us the law of motion. The Wright brothers flew, Henry Ford’s dream of a car for the multitudes changed automobile history and Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” profoundly transformed American class stratification. In many ways, thus, dreams and ideas have and will continue to shape the world.

    O.k. it is all good ., where is Islamic contributuon Jihadi??

    Quote
    Scholar and historian William Montgomery Watt writes in his book The Glory that Was Islam: “When Christian Europe began to show an interest in the discoveries of its Saracen enemies in 1100 AD, Arab science and philosophy was at its zenith. Europe had to learn everything that was to be learned from the Arabs, without whom European science and philosophy would never have been able to develop as they did.” Tragically, the same Muslim world, once the guiding light of all civilisation, is bereft of knowledge and dreams today.

    Nonsense., i can easily other way around "WITHOUT THAT GORY ISLAM,  Arab civilization and Persian Civilization and you own Indian subcontinent civilization would have been far more advanced that with Muhammad's Islam.

    Quote
    Muslim contributions, amongst numerous other disciplines, were in such varied fields as literature, calligraphy, architecture, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, astrophysics, chemistry and philosophy. Apart from many ground-breaking inventions and theories, these contributions had a profound dimension. The golden age of Muslim science and philosophy, unlike today, was one of contacts and exchanges between cultures. Knowledge was welcomed from every quarter. It was an era of spontaneous borrowings and two-way influence.

    True Early Muslim did contribute ., but that is nothing to do with Muhammad's Islam it is in spite of Islam., It is a contribution of Individuals.

    Quote
    Muslim advancement and forays in navigation, from the astrolabe and compass to the fast sailing ship known as the caravel, facilitated and made possible the arrival of Europeans in the New World. For 700 years the Arabs ruled Spain and Portugal, the powers that held a virtual monopoly on exploration in the New World. In the ninth century, the Abbey of St Gall library was the largest in Europe. It boasted 400 volumes and codices. That of Cordoba contained over 500,000! Going through the Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace one concludes that sixty percent of the known star names are derived from Arabic.

     rubbish you have no idea of History of Spain and who contributed what.

    Quote
    The Muslim world’s political mismanagement failed to sustain the intellectual zenith, ultimately leading to downfall. Islam emphasises a balance between spiritualism and worldly knowledge. In forsaking knowledge we defied the teachings and spirit of Islam. This in turn led to retrogression in our religious beliefs, intellectual productivity and societal values. Excelling in science and knowledge was once a boon for Muslims; skepticism and a total lack in these fields has become a bane.

    the knowledge you have in Quran and hadith you follow you will still living in 7th century ., in fact your thinking is still 7th century. The skepticism is the last thing that comes out of Islam ., In fact Islam blocks skeptic attitude of a person who follows Muhammad's book.
    Quote
    Today we have given the world to understand that Islam frowns on scientific achievement and enquiry. On the contrary it emphasises the quest for knowledge, never being at conflict with the same. The Quran repeatedly encourages us to contemplate and investigate the world around us.

    Yes the only quest in Islam is houries in after life and jihad in the present life for the sake allah and propagating culture killing murderous Muhammad's ideology.

    Quote
    “Read in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clot. Read, for your Lord is most generous, Who teaches by means of the pen, teaches man what he does not know.” (Al-Alaq). These were the first five verses revealed to the Holy Prophet (pbuh), the first word being “read.” Out of a total of 6,326 verses in the Holy Quran the word `ilm (knowledge) and its derivatives are used more than 780 times, the concept of reasoning 49 times. Allah says: “We fashioned man according to the best way.” (At-Tin: 95:4). This supremacy was only awarded to Adam over angels because of his being endowed with the capacity to learn and comprehend.

    There you go, what nonsense is that? is it skeptic attitude?  no it is a mindless attitude of total believer., that to from senseless book.
    Quote
    However, the present status of Muslims is mirrored in this verse: “They have hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not, and ears wherewith they hear not. They are like cattle—nay, more misguided, for they are heedless (of warning).” (Al-A`raf: 179). Here, understand not, see not and hear not mean unaware, astray, neglectful and, above all—ignorant.

    Well follow Quran what you get is cattle making noise in mosques.

    Islam was once applied in a way to support creativity and tolerance along with diversity of positive thought and behaviour, both in societal and individual lives. Mamun-ur-Rasheed summed it up aptly when he said: “Reason and faith can be the same. By fully opening the mind and unleashing human creativity, many wonders, including peace, are possible.”

    Quote
    Today, we are content in eulogising past glories while lamenting our present predicaments. It is time to craft solutions to the issues that confront us; to do that we need to understand the true spirit, message and history of Islam. The ways and means for a better and brighter tomorrow are only for those who seek knowledge, dream and strive to see them come true.


    The writer is a freelance contributor. Email: miradnanaziz@gmail.com

    There is no past glory in Islam., the only GORY you have is ., each one killing others in the name of Islam ., if you don't find other religious followers .. Muslim kill other Muslims in the name My Islam is better than your Islam. Shia/Sunni split immediately after the death of Prophet of Islam    is a perfect example of that.

    So friend go and preach in Mosques.. grow the beard.. you clean shaved for reason...

    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim
     
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #8 - February 26, 2011, 09:20 PM

    Quote
    . It is time to craft solutions to the issues that confront us; to do that we need to understand the true spirit, message and history of Islam. The ways and means for a better and brighter tomorrow are only for those who seek knowledge, dream and strive to see them come true.


    So much delusion is contained here its difficult to know where to begin.



    "we can smell traitors and country haters"


    God is Love.
    Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.

  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #9 - February 26, 2011, 09:29 PM

    Its an interesting article, but not for what he says in it, which is mostly bog standard stuff.

    Its interesting because he is an Indian who rather than feeling a deep sense of connection with the scientific, cultural and historical achievments of ancient Indian civilisation, feels a deep concern for the demise of Arab learning and curiousity.

    So rather than taking pride in the civilisation he was born into, India, and examining ways in which India can revive its centres of learning, intellectual and cultural spirit, science etc etc, he cares more for Arab civilisations.

    What makes an Indian forsake his own civilisation and history and become a mind-slave to that of the Arab? Its actually pretty sad when you see it. Naipaul writes about this in his books Among The Believers and Beyond Belief.




    A good example that shows Islam is more of politics than religion. Its one and only GOD hates all cultures except the Arabic one.
    Born followers and former 'morally deranged converts'[rofl] accept this unquestioningly!

    So much delusion is contained here its difficult to know where to begin.





    What's Islam without delusion?



    The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
                                   Thomas Paine

    Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored !- Aldous Huxley
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #10 - February 26, 2011, 09:34 PM


    All religions involve delusion of one kind or another.

    The delusion I'm talking about here is that the route to education, science, discovery must be filtered through Islam and the history of Islam, rather than just ennobling science education and discovery for its own sake.

    "we can smell traitors and country haters"


    God is Love.
    Love is Blind. Stevie Wonder is blind. Therefore, Stevie Wonder is God.

  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #11 - February 26, 2011, 10:41 PM

    All religions involve delusion of one kind or another.



    The delusions of this religion beats all others hands down,because of the power it has over its followers' minds!


    The delusion I'm talking about here is that the route to education, science, discovery must be filtered through Islam and the history of Islam, rather than just ennobling science education and discovery for its own sake.



    The refusal to see the truth of what you have stated is the Mother of all delusions.
    Why only education,science,discovery etc? Every facet of life comes under Islam's scanner!
    So what chance does free thinking,which is a vital prerequisite for the things you mentioned,  have?



    The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
                                   Thomas Paine

    Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored !- Aldous Huxley
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another intellectual rights on"Contribution of early Musli
     Reply #12 - February 27, 2011, 03:19 AM

    So rather than taking pride in the civilisation he was born into, India, and examining ways in which India can revive its centres of learning, intellectual and cultural spirit, science etc etc, he cares more for Arab civilisations.

    What makes an Indian forsake his own civilisation and history and become a mind-slave to the Arab?

    He's a Hyderabadi.

    I think that about explains it.

    "Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
    - Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Re: Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another Islamic intellectual on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #13 - October 12, 2011, 09:03 PM

    Well the  man Aijaz Zaka Syed writes again in to  News.comPak  Why Muslim guys like Anwar al Awlaki or  Samir Khan  who are born and brought in US of A  or Faisal Shahzad  who went to school and college in US of A is an An American tragedy ., Let us read bit of that American tragedy
    Quote
    Who created Anwar al Awlaki and Samir Khan, US citizens killed this week in Yemen? As the West marks 10 years of war, is it ready to face some home truths?
    Quote
    Samir Khan was the age of my young brother. Born to reasonably well-to-do parents, he grew up in the United States and went to the best of schools in a privileged neighbourhood. How did he then end up in distant Yemen, offering lessons in bomb making to aspiring terrorists? Samir was killed in a US strike last week along with Anwar Al Awlaki, a US-born cleric, and two others. He was 25 and the editor of Al-Qaeda’s English online magazine Inspire. He had come a long way from Charlotte in the American South to the tribal melting pot of Yemen.

    In a piece last year, he wrote: “I laugh at the intelligence agencies that were watching me all those years. Back in North Carolina, the FBI dispatched a (guy to) spy on me who pretended to convert to Islam. I am a traitor to America because my religion requires me to be one. We pledge to wage jihad for the rest of our lives until either we implant Islam all over the world or meet our Lord as bearers of Islam.” He argued he could “no longer reside in America as a compliant citizen” while it waged wars on Muslim lands and “killed millions of Muslims around the world.”

    Yet Samir had had a rather protected childhood and was known as a regular guy growing up with neighbourhood boys and often playing basketball with them. It was a typical American dream for the immigrant family. Samir’s parents were widely respected in the neighbourhood and the community.

    What then went wrong? Something snapped in Samir after 9/11. The witch hunt and overwhelming suspicion that many Muslims faced in the wake of attacks hadn’t been easy for the best of integrated communities. It was clearly a life-changing experience for an impressionable teenager. The US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and all that that went on out there in the name of promoting democracy and fighting terror proved too much for the young man who moved to America when he was seven.

    Quote
    Samir spent most of his time on the Internet, frequenting extremist websites and growing increasingly radical and vocal in his views. His parents were so alarmed by his anger against the country they had chosen that they took him to meet numerous community leaders and scholars in desperate attempts to reform him. But it was not to be. Samir soon “blogged his way into the highest circles of Al-Qaeda,” as the New York Times puts it. Writing in a language and idiom that appealed to young people growing up in western societies, he soon earned himself a name.

    In 2009, he left the comfortable family home in Charlotte to travel to Yemen and launch Al-Qaeda’s mouthpiece Inspire. He believed his “media jihad” was as crucial as the battles his armed fellow travellers fought. In his last piece in Inspire, he talks about the role men like him played in this war: “While America was focused on battling mujahedeen in the mountains of Afghanistan and the streets of Iraq, the jihadi media and its supporters were in fifth gear.”

    And perhaps nothing illustrates the growing Muslim anger against America as this tragedy does. Like Awlaki and Major Nidal Hassan, who went on a killing spree at Fort Hood in 2009, Samir boasted a perfect all-American childhood. Yet he went off the bend embracing a path that not just ended in tragedy and infamy, it went against the spirit and basic teachings of the faith he loved. He wasn’t the first to traverse that path though.........................
     
    Although ordinary Americans and Europeans have been increasingly asking themselves and their leaders ‘why do they hate us’, there has been little change in policies and actions of their governments. Indeed, things have only progressed from bad to worse. President Barack Obama’s sell-out over a token UN recognition of a moth-eaten Palestinian state has convinced Arabs and Muslims once again that no matter who is in White House, it’s the Zionists with their media, moneybags and lobbies who run the show......................
    Quote
    US drones are now killing men, women and children like flies all across the Middle East and beyond. The drone that killed Awlaki, Samir and two others was launched from a new site on Arabian Peninsula. Due process, rule of law? Are you kidding me? Who can dare to confront Uncle Sam, the judge, jury and executioner? Except for some stray voices in blogosphere, few in the land of the free have bothered to debate the legality of this White House-authorised killing of US citizens, let alone the daily slaughter of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    Ten years of wars and there’s no end in sight. America must continue fighting on behalf of you know who even if it’s totally broke and everything is falling apart. A new Pew Research survey suggests that one third of the US soldiers feel the war hasn’t been “worth the cost”. As many as 51 percent feel the “overreliance on military force creates hatred that breeds terrorism”.

    ................................................
    Quote
    Obama has the ‘audacity’ to cheer for a free South Sudan at the UN and lashes out at Palestinians in the same breath for craving the same freedom. It’s this hypocrisy that created men like Awlaki and Samir. As we mark a decade of war, there are no signs this reality has dawned on America. This is the American tragedy.

    The writer is a commentator on Middle East and South Asian affairs. Email: aijaz.syed@hotmail.com


    well I don't know what to say  but i ant to say a lot on that article.. may be I should read more of my friend Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another  intellectual.. let me put together his words, his ayahs, his verses and his Quran together in the next post. I wonder whether this guy is a brother or cousin of Waqar Younus.. that Cricket Legend from Land of Pure..

    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim
     
  • Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another Islamic intellectual on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #14 - May 20, 2016, 12:17 PM

    Aijaz Zaka Syed  writes another article that gets in to  that Sand land news a paper now it is about "Islam_books and Reading in So-called Islamic Nations"  .. let me read get some nuggets out of it..
    Quote
    When did we stop reading?   Aijaz Zaka Syed | Published — Friday 20 May 2016

    Nothing beats the simple pleasure that a bunch of good books promise. A Pakistani friend, who spent some years in the Middle East before happily settling down in the great, green expanses of Canada, shares my weakness for books. We often exchange notes about our latest acquisitions and what we are currently reading. The Middle Eastern history with all its intricacies, high-stake power games and fascinating civilizational encounters remains our chief area of interest.

    Having explored nearly all popular libraries in the adopted country and tempted me with some of its tantalizing treasures, my friend has concluded that the Gulf is not the best place for a book lover: “There are no good libraries!”

    “Tell me about it!” I said with feeling.

    Quote
    However, I hastened to add, of late efforts are being made to improve the situation. The UAE, for instance, has declared 2016 as the Year of Reading. Sharjah, celebrated as the Cultural Capital of the Arab world, has for years been quietly trying to inculcate reading and love for books in the Emiratis and residents from an early age.

    Led by its benign scholar ruler, a double PhD from the UK, the Emirate has come up with initiatives like Knowledge Without Borders that includes gifting a small library of 50 books to each family in the Emirate, besides setting up libraries and reading clubs in every neighborhood. Home to the region’s oldest and largest annual book fair, Sharjah is also planning to publish 1001 Arabic books over the next two years as part of the UAE’s celebration of 2016 as the Year of Reading.

    ................
    “Yes, it would be another thousand years before the Arab world catches up with North America or the rest of the West,” says my friend. “Don’t be so sure! Don’t forget your hosts reached this exalted state of being not long ago. Where was America or Europe for that matter a thousand years ago?”

    At the height of the Islamic civilization when Baghdad and Muslim Spain were attracting seekers of knowledge from far corners of the world, the Europeans were still living in the dark ages.

    The Western Renaissance owes a great deal to the Islamic civilization and its scientific and medical discoveries, not to mention the whole new world that opened before them in the form of ancient Greek philosophy, thanks to the translations done by Muslim scholars. (THAT WAS NOT ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION)

    Between the fall of Roman Empire and the dawn of European Renaissance, Muslim civilization led the world in knowledge and virtually everything else.
    Bait Al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad was perhaps the world’s first laboratory of ideas. Founded by Caliph Harun Al-Rashid, it reached its heights under his son Al-Ma’mun. Bait Al-Hikma brought together well-known scholars, scientists and intellectuals, encouraging them to debate and exchange ideas and share their knowledge by writing them down.
    Quote
    For nearly 500 years, from 9th to 13th century, Bait Al-Hikma led the movement of knowledge and scientific inquiry in the known world with top scholars from around the world, including Jews and Christians, rubbing shoulders here.

     Besides translating eminent texts and books from around the world into Arabic, scholars associated with the House of Wisdom also made numerous original contributions to diverse fields. During Al-Ma’mun’s reign, astronomical observatories were set up, and Baghdad was an unrivaled center for the study of humanities and science, including mathematics, astronomy, medicine, alchemy and chemistry, zoology, geography and cartography. Drawing on ancient Greek, Indian and Persian texts, the scholars accumulated a great collection of world knowledge, and built on it through their own discoveries. By the middle of the ninth century, Bait Al-Hikma had the largest selection of books in the world. (ALL THAT IS NOTHING TO WITH ISLAM)


    Quote
    All this was destroyed in 1258 when the Mongols sacked Baghdad. It’s said that when the invading hordes ransacked the great city, the fabled center of learning and epitome of the Islamic civilization, the city's rivers turned dark. The heaps of smoldering books, thrown into the river by the marauding hordes, had turned the waters of the Tigris black. The Mongols saw civilization and all its gifts as abomination.(YES..YES BLAME MONGOLS )

    Another legendary library that the region once hosted was in Alexandria, the city founded by Alexander the Great after his conquest of Egypt in 332 BC. The great Library of Alexandria, founded by the emperor himself, was lost in similarly tragic circumstances. (AGAIN BLAME MONGOLS )


     For centuries, the library remained one of the largest and most influential ever in the world, attracting thinkers, scientists, mathematicians, poets and philosophers. It had as many as 700,000 rare scrolls on its shelves. The library was forever lost to history in a mysterious tragedy. Scholars are still not sure how.

    According to Roman writers, the great library was accidentally destroyed in a massive fire during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar in 48 BC. Other accounts blame the early Christian and even Muslim armies for the destruction of the library.

    Quote
    However, the Muslims do not have a history of burning books or destroying libraries, at least not until the whackos of Taliban and Daesh came along. Knowledge, said Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), is the lost heritage of Muslims and they should acquire it wherever they see it.  Blame  Taliban and Daesh NONSENSE

     .............
     Everyone appears to be either lost in his/her smartphone or is preoccupied with other equally rewarding pleasures. Travelling inside Europe, it’s endlessly fascinating to see everyone, both young and old, armed with books. .................

    This is all the more bewildering considering the importance that pursuit of knowledge enjoys in our faith and culture. The very first revealed word of the Quran ordained: ‘Read!’ (GREAT READ WHAT?? it means  read Quran dumbo)
    ....................................yadi....yadi..yadi........

    Because people who do not read lose the capacity to think for themselves. Knowledge is power.

     well read it all at the link..  and  I will agree with that   " people who do not read lose the capacity to think for themselves"  ..

    but  DO NOT WRITE LIES MAN.. specially lies about history of Islam intellectual Indian Muslim guys are very smart people

    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim
     
  • Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another Islamic intellectual on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #15 - May 20, 2016, 02:09 PM

    Quote
    According to Roman writers, the great library was accidentally destroyed in a massive fire during the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar in 48 BC. Other accounts blame the early Christian and even Muslim armies for the destruction of the library.


    In 48 BC?

    Oh, they are some sneaky bastards those time traveling fanatics!


  • Aijaz Zaka Syed_ Another Islamic intellectual on"Contribution of early Muslims"
     Reply #16 - May 20, 2016, 03:47 PM

    Quote
    Did you, for instance, know that it was an Arab woman, Fatima al Fihri, from Morocco who founded the world’s first university?

    Ian David Morris debunked this claim on his blog a while back: http://www.iandavidmorris.com/a_mosque_a_muslimah_and_a_little_white_lie/
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