What have Islamic peoples done for the world lately?

thanks for the response. You are right, I did not realize that they made such positive advances. They also found new uses for box knives, shoes, and toothpaste! I know some people are going to say- that's terrorists, not muslims! I know. But I don't know of any apocolypic terrorists who are not muslim. So anyway, make with the contributions to the modern world.

Destiny, I give you props for your scepticism and wit. Even though it was short; but it's powerful and dynamic! So go on with your bad self!

Thank you for the link- that is very interesting! Kudos to the six muslims who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, except for Yassar Arafat, a terrorist.

sorrt the adress is: www.jewishmag.com/99mag/nobel/nobel.htm

Well, as I said before, some of our Western innovations have been invented in part due to the efforts of Arabs and Muslims. It's also quite likely that some of those contributors were from those regions.

I am talking about Islamic people- from the middle east to Indonesia to sub-sharan Africa. Originally I was thinking about just Arabs, but then that wouldn't include Iranians, who are Persians. It also wouldn't include the world's biggest population of Muslims, in Indonesia. Perhaps there is a market-incentive for the oil industry, bothh in America and the middle-east, to hesitate on researching Electric cars, but I think that will change in America soon anyway because of the changing market pressures. Still, there must be more to the Arab cultures today than oil, oppressive regimes, and blaming the West. Big oil cannot be an excuse for Islamic lack of innovation in the twentieth century.

Which ones all the best urban

But I thought Americans were Oppressive Imperialists?! Oooo...Harems.

So... muslims in India were oppressive imperialists, if I understand what you are taking about.

i agree with a lot of what is being said in this discussion. It seems to me that scientific progress, indeed any progress since the time of mohammed, is seen as suspect by some moslims, maybe this is why no progress can be seen. Contributions are that Islam has provided a focus point for the rest of the world to hate.

thanks for the response. Many cultures sit on great wealth, and I have no objection to investing in or purchasing someone else's technology. But shouldn't over 1 billion people have some recent scientific contribution, or some cultural contribution in the twentieth century?

I agree with you. Africa has not contributed much either, scientifically or culturally. However, much of Africa is Muslim. (Not to blame Africa's problems all on Muslims- it is most likely coincidental here.) However, Africa is not touted as being a great culture. Nor is it a culture at all, instead, it is a geographic area, so it is a little different. Muslims are all across the globe, in a variety of geographic areas. When the West helps Africa, it may go to autocrats instead of the poor, but at least Zimbabwe is not exporting Islamist violence to the West, as far as I know.

You are right, the arab world is not synonymous with Islam, technically (although there are not many arabs who are NOT muslim.) Islam was founded in the middle east, and Mecca is in the middle east, so it makes sense that people in the West often think of Arabs when they think of Islam. But, to be fair, I am including all Islamic cultures in this post, Arab or otherwise. If you can show me a cultural or scientific advance that Muslims in Indonesia or Niger have made, then I would love to know. I would like some objective responses to this- not responses as to why they are held back, or what they have contributed to the world in the middle ages. What have they contributed now?

thanks for making it more clear for me. i dont really know what to tell you. maybe all the new technology and inventions are Western creations, but that doesn't rule out the possibility that muslims in the West contributed to their creation. there is, for example, a huge population of first and second generation muslims in Western Europe. does that count? i think muslims do contribute even now to art, music, fashion, etc. arabic and even turkish music has become extremely popular all over the world. here in europe i see many 'white' europeans wearing jewelry and scarves that originated in the middle east. in terms of culture, muslims have contributed and are still contributing a lot. have you ever heard of muhammad yunus, the creator of the grameen bank? he started this microcredit lending bank in bangladesh which has helped millions of poor, and the bank has since spread to many other parts of the world. he recently won the nobel peace prize in 2006. maybe one of islam's biggest contributions recently has been in the area of politics. in some ways, its been good, in others bad. but its a contribution nonetheless and has changed the way the world thinks. you are right though. we don't know about many of muslims' current contributions, maybe because there hasn't been anything spectacular that we've seen in a while. but that doesn't necessarily mean they haven't done anything. and another thing to realize is that most of these countries are in a really poor state. when the majority of their citizens are impoverished, its kinda hard to create an outstanding invention or find a technological breakthrough. i found this link that might be interesting: http://www.usip.org/muslimworld/projects/index.html

You had best take a good look over the last 30-40 years. You want to talk about hate,arms ,poverty, and infighting? Look to the Muslims, because that is where it starts. That is the root of all modern evil. You want to say that we are worse than animals? All anyone has to do is turn on the news any hour of the day and find that another terrorist pig has killed again. So who are you calling animals? We ARE superior, no question of that. You would do well to deal with Pakistan, and keep your nose out of things that you all too obviously do not understand.

Let me clarify- I did not want theological arguments brought into this, such as "Islam has contributed to the world because it has spread, therefore giving more people the benefit of the five pillars of faith, etc." I want tangible examples, such as medicine, agricultural technology to grow more food, advancements in structural engineering, advancements in transportation, communication, or even advancements in civil-rights, etc. Also, Sweden as a country may not have acheived much, but Western Europe has in medicine and technology and civil-rights. Similarly, Vietnam may not have achieved much, but China and Japan has (not in civil rights, but in technological innovation). Africa and South America do not sit on the wealth that the middle-east does, so where are the innovations? Surely there must be something substantive!

That's right, we've bombed the hell out of Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Mauritania, Algeria, Oman, Yemen, Tunisia, Turkey, Djibouti, Comoros, Morocco, Libya and Iran (I don't know why not), Pakistan, Qatar, Jordan, Tajikistan, Senegal, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Mali, Niger, the Gambia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Syria (again-why not?) Bahrain, Guinea, Kuwait (we saved them), Kyrgyzstan, UAE, Albania, Lebenon, and Sudan. All of those countries have Muslim majorities, with at least 60%. I guess America's been holding them back from their scientific progress. Good point.

Thanks for your comment. Muslims make up a fifth of the world's population, so don't give that tired "nopt strong enough- being oppressed by America" line. Don't like America- than go to France, Russia or China! Many countries are doing this. And yes, Muslims have contributed to Western culture 500+ years ago, much of the technology just being filtered through them from China. I acknowledged their past contributions in my original post. Why did the progress stop? I'm glad you responded, because you must know what kind of innovations Muslims developed in the twentieth century, that other countries haven't developed first. What countries are developing new technologies or medicines, and how are they being crushed by sanctions? Are there sanctions against Saudi Arabia? What about Indonesia? Oman? UAE? Besides, what is Iran developing that is beneficial to mankind? Nuclear weapons- oh- I'm sorry- peaceful nuclear reactors (because they don't enough oil to handle their energy needs over there...) You have just given another knee-jerk "blame the West for Islam's recent lack of achievement" response.