Another day, another right wing proposal to pull up the drawbridge of Fortress America and hide from the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, the idea of a Christian European wanting to bar a Muslim import is sadly a very old one.
The Hindu-ARABIC numbering system was a revolutionary introduction into Europe from the Arab world, although it didn't start to penetrate Europe until 500 to 700 years after it had been developed (all those Christians were might distrustful of what must have seemed like squiggles of the devil - as late as 1299, the bankers of Florence were forbidden to use the Hindu-Arabic numbering system! (source: Queens Hall of Science)). Imagine where we would be with all those cumbersome XXCLLVIII or whatever with no sense of digits "holding" values (so they could be lined up and added) and no ZERO! (Arabs borrowed and refined zero and numerals with base 10 from the Hindu mathematicians of India.) Or negative numbers, which were not introduced into Europe until the 1500s!
Algebra is another gift of the Arab world. The word algebra comes from the Arabic word الجبر = al-jabr = "restoration". In the 9th century, Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī wrote The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, establishing and algebra as a distinct mathematical discipline. Think about that: no algebra, no modern engineering, no space program, no satellites, no GPS.
Paper, perhaps one of the greatest technologies of all (far more important even than the computer in the preservation and transmission of knowledge) was invented by the Chinese around 200 but adopted in the 8th Century by Arabs who carried the technology into North Africa, Spain, and Sicily. It took another 500 years for paper-making technology to enter Europe (Italy first, then France, Germany, and Switzerland by the 15th century). Next time you use paper, thank the Arab world. (Source: Basel Paper Museum, Basel, Switzerland)
While Christian Europe was burning books, including those of "pagan" philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, the Arab world was carefully preserving them - and thank god because without the Arab preservation, we would have no works from ancient Greece (some books were unfortunately lost forever thanks to this Taliban-like outburst of godliness).
The good news is that although conservative Christian Europeans (and America is simply a derivative of European culture) tried to hold back progress seen as Other, they ultimately failed. They could delay but not prevent, and we are all vastly richer thanks to the failure of their xenophobia.
Unfortunately, the idea of a Christian European wanting to bar a Muslim import is sadly a very old one.
The Hindu-ARABIC numbering system was a revolutionary introduction into Europe from the Arab world, although it didn't start to penetrate Europe until 500 to 700 years after it had been developed (all those Christians were might distrustful of what must have seemed like squiggles of the devil - as late as 1299, the bankers of Florence were forbidden to use the Hindu-Arabic numbering system! (source: Queens Hall of Science)). Imagine where we would be with all those cumbersome XXCLLVIII or whatever with no sense of digits "holding" values (so they could be lined up and added) and no ZERO! (Arabs borrowed and refined zero and numerals with base 10 from the Hindu mathematicians of India.) Or negative numbers, which were not introduced into Europe until the 1500s!
Algebra is another gift of the Arab world. The word algebra comes from the Arabic word الجبر = al-jabr = "restoration". In the 9th century, Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī wrote The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, establishing and algebra as a distinct mathematical discipline. Think about that: no algebra, no modern engineering, no space program, no satellites, no GPS.
Paper, perhaps one of the greatest technologies of all (far more important even than the computer in the preservation and transmission of knowledge) was invented by the Chinese around 200 but adopted in the 8th Century by Arabs who carried the technology into North Africa, Spain, and Sicily. It took another 500 years for paper-making technology to enter Europe (Italy first, then France, Germany, and Switzerland by the 15th century). Next time you use paper, thank the Arab world. (Source: Basel Paper Museum, Basel, Switzerland)
While Christian Europe was burning books, including those of "pagan" philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, the Arab world was carefully preserving them - and thank god because without the Arab preservation, we would have no works from ancient Greece (some books were unfortunately lost forever thanks to this Taliban-like outburst of godliness).
The good news is that although conservative Christian Europeans (and America is simply a derivative of European culture) tried to hold back progress seen as Other, they ultimately failed. They could delay but not prevent, and we are all vastly richer thanks to the failure of their xenophobia.
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