Space Forum / Astronomy / December 2008

But then there is no other way Hasbara thugs can divert readers'
attention to the facts.

We have underestimated the importance of 800 years of Islamic society
and culture in Spain between the 8th and 15th centuries. The
contribution of Moorish Spain to the preservation of classical
learning during the Dark Ages, and to the first flowerings of the
Renaissance, has long been recognised. But Moorish Spain was much more
than a mere larder where Hellenistic knowledge was kept for later
consumption by the emerging modern Western world. Not only did Moorish
Spain gather and preserve the intellectual content of ancient Greek
and Roman civilisation, it also interpreted and expanded upon that
civilisation, and made a vital contribution of its own in so many
fields of human endeavour - in science, astronomy, mathematics,
algebra (itself an Moorish word), law, history, medicine,
pharmacology, optics, agriculture, architecture, theology, music.
Averroes and Avenzoor, like their counterparts Avicenna and Rhazes in
the East, contributed to the study and practice of medicine in ways
from which Europe benefited for centuries afterwards.
Islam nurtured and preserved the quest for learning. In the words of
the tradition, 'the ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood
of the martyr'. Cordoba in the 10th century was by far the most
civilised city of Europe. We know of lending libraries in Spain at the
time King Alfred was making terrible blunders with the culinary arts
in this country. It is said that the 400,000 volumes in its ruler's
library amounted to more books than all the libraries of the rest of
Europe put together. That was made possible because the Muslim world
acquired from China the skill of making paper more than 400 years
before the rest of non-Muslim Europe. Many of the traits on which
modern Europe prides itself came to it from Moorish Spain. Diplomacy,
free trade, open borders, the techniques of academic research, of
anthropology, etiquette, fashion, various types of medicine,
hospitals, all came from this great city of cities.

Medieval Islam was a religion of remarkable tolerance for its time,
allowing Moors and Christians the right to practise their beliefs, and
setting an example which was not, unfortunately, copied for many
centuries in the West. The surprise, ladies and gentlemen, is the
extent to which Islam has been a part of Europe for so long, first in
Spain, then in the Balkans, and the extent to which it has contributed
so much towards the civilisation which we all too often think of,
wrongly, as entirely Western. Islam is part of our past and our
present, in all fields of human endeavour. It has helped to create
modern Europe. It is part of our own inheritance, not a thing apart. -
Prince Charles of England, 2003.

you will bow to me... Before I trow you into the lake of fire at the
final judgment...  But I'm here to tell you that if Warhol is not your
Lord and Savior, you are on your way to hell, prepared for the devil
and his angels. .

Some of you yids will be upset at this bad news. You think that I'm
all gloom and doom. Tell me this...if your house were on fire, would
you want me to let you know? Of course you would. You'd probably thank
me for telling you. Well, if you go to hell, YOU will be the one on
fire.

Satan, the god of this world, WILL NOT always cause havoc. His doom is
already foretold, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the
lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are,
and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." (Revelation
20:10)

Hey, those hats are kool!