abu_rashid wrote on Apr 19^th, 2012 at 11:01pm:



The truth of it, of course, is that the Muslims cut off the West from its Greco-Roman heritage when  they overrun the Eastern Roman Empire. The reality is that the Muslim rank with the Goths, the Huns and the other assorted barbarians who hastened the destruction of the civilisational inheritance from antiquity. They most certainly didn't 'pass on' anything.

Very recently we saw in Afghanistan, with the destruction of the giant Buddha statues, what the Muslim attitude is to any preceding non-Muslim civilisation.

The truth about the Islamic interest in Greek and Roman books and knowledge is that they were interested only in technical knowledge. You will not find any ancient poetry or political treatise or picaresque novel translated into Arabic during that supposed great Arab flowering. In any case, all the translations - all - were done by converts, Jews and Christians who learned Arabic.

The real recovery of antiquity occurred when the refugees from the East arrived in the West, following the final conquest of Byzantium in 1453, and brought with them books and knowledge. That marks the beginning of what we call the Renaissance, the western recovery of the civilisational heritage of antiquity.

Not coincidentally, it also marks the irreversible intellectual, artistic, political, economic and every other kind  decline of Islam. SO whatever they passed on to the west, they certainly did not make use of it themselves.

freediver wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 6:03pm:


Deceptive of you to bring that up.

I have already explained that in Islam, a man is not allowed to live with the bride as husband and wife, until they have both reached puberty.

chimera wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 9:40pm:


Usually around 10 or 11, but it can be as early as 7 or 8, or as late as 13.

Frances wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 9:48pm:


Islam has declared the 7th century view of the world as the eternal view. It is now impossible for Islam to adjust to any, ANY,  change from that world view.

This is why Islam is utterly doomed - it is institutionally, by definition, backward and anachronistic. It cannot evolve, it cannot take in new information. It is the rallying point for all that has been left behind by the unfolding of the world. It's a joke. It is dying so it is a bloody joke.

falah wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 10:39pm:


Yes, both Jerry Lee Lewis and Bill Wyman have cum across 14 year old brides.

I don't think they're Muslims.

falah wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 10:39pm:

Aside from a couple of instances you mention from backwoods America, how long ago is "not so long ago" and where "in the West" are you talking about?  When I researched my family a few years back, the youngest any of the female members of the family would have been at marriage, going as far back to the early 1800s, would have been 17 or 18.  I think there was one married at 16 when I got back to the 1700s.

abu_rashid wrote on Apr 20^th, 2012 at 11:29pm:


Attaining puberty in itself doesn't make you an adult.  I mentioned earlier in this page the age at which girls reach puberty.  Are you trying to justify paedophilia?

Frances wrote on Apr 21^st, 2012 at 1:58am:


When people attain puberty and become "raashid" (aware and able to lead others), then they are considered an adult in Islam. The West's concept of "adolescence" is nothing but a blight on society which leads to much of our ills. Having an intermediary stage between childhood and adulthood is not natural and it does not result in a healthy society.