🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 22 Sep 2001 02:33:52 -0500, Agent Link <blink@nsa.gov> wrote:

>
>Save your breath, Sandar. The American fanatics cannot engage in
>reasonable debate at this time. 
>
>BLink
Peace be with you,

It could well be argued that fanatics of any nature will be unable to
engage in a reasonable debate at this time, or any other time for that
matter.  But I for one found Sandar's post interesting.  Many
westerners do not understand the dept our civilization owes to the
Islamic world for keeping the sciences alive and moving forward while
we were neglecting them.  

But conversely, if Islam is to be a leading force in the world, it
needs to resume the role of intellectual and scientific leadership
that it once so firmly held.  Universities and research facilities in
the Islamic countries need to become world leaders again.  The
economies of those countries need to be strong enough to support such
world class institutions. Only then will the islamic peoples of the
world resume their historic role as the world's intellectual and
technological leaders.  

Here in Houston, the Muslims I know fall roughly into two categories:
those who shun modern science, and those who know that it is their
cultural heritage, their birth right, and embrace it.  You can see
them divided into two groups at the mosque on Eastside near Greenway
plaza, and I assume it is the same all over the world.  Those who hide
in the past and those who live in the technologically challenging
present.  I'd say the later group are the true followers of Islam, as
they are the ones who will keep it a major world force.