There have been several attempts to bring up the theory of the clash of civilizations in order to discredit Islam in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy in the United States. A lack of clarity and ambivalence on the part of the expounders of the theory make it hard to understand what they mean by clash of civilizations.
Is there, in fact, anything called a clash of civilizations? Cultural differences should be viewed as the outcome of varying angles of perception by people living in different circumstances. Nobody can deny that every civilization is indebted to an earlier civilization.
Unfortunately the events of the Sept. 11 prompted some writers to launch a blind attack on the Arab and Muslim civilization in a bid to downplay the vital role played by the Muslims and Arabs in building the modern Western civilization.
Such a view, apparently, betrays, a total ignorance of cultural history. A quick perusal of the book "Arab Sun Shines Over the West," written by German writer Zenggered Honkah, will convince anyone about the pivotal role of the Arab and Islamic culture in the evolution of the modern Western civilization.
The writer described how the European trade and cultural centers in Europe, especially Venice and Genoa, were influenced by Arab culture since the 10th century. She narrated a documented report in which the head of a commercial delegation was shocked by the filthiness of the people in general when he first visited Venice in those days. "I never saw people wearing such filthy clothes. They never washed or took bath except once or twice a year," he said. An Arab could not imagine such unclean hygienic practices because he washed five times a day as part of his religious duty, the writer noted.
Further explaining the depth of the indebtedness of the West to the Arabs in the middle ages, the writer said, "I wish to thank the generous Arab contributions for which the West never thanked the Arabs because of the West’s religious bias and deep ignorance. We cannot ignore the fact that for over 750 years in the last millennium Arabs were the bearers of the torch of culture."
Several chapters in her book have been devoted to discuss the contributions of the Muslim scientists. "Ibn Maskawaih put forward the idea of evolution centuries before Charles Darwin did. Ikhwan Al-Safa, Ibn Khaldun, and Al-Khazen also wrote treatises on various types of evolutions much before Darwin. Ibn Al-Nafees shed light on the blood circulation before Harvey did while Ibn Al-Haithem (Alhazen) expounded his theories on the speed of light. Arabs were capable of measuring the size of planets and the distance between them before Galileo and Copernicus. Al-Khawarzmi set down the rules of Algebra which were further developed by Al-Kindi and Al-Farjani. Their works were recognized as text books in several European universities until the 17th century," the German writer explained in her book.
Arab scientists invented the astrolabe in the 12th century and in the next century they formulated the theory of rocket. They also invented several medicines in addition to introducing the idea of constructing general hospitals. Over 600 years ago the Paris University library had only a single reference book in science and it was an Arabic encyclopedia on medicine. The university also used the works of Al-Razi (Razes) on medicine, physics and astronomy, the writer said. The writer continued to explain several other important contributions of Arabs to the modern science and philosophy.
The point I want to stress in these difficult times is that all should study the positive aspects of other civilizations and acknowledge their contributions to the human progress in stead of rushing to condemn other civilizations.
