freediver wrote Yesterday at 8:38am:

Australian national and cultural identity
Reply #144 -
The Fertile Crescent was destroyed by Europeans and not revived.
Egypt.
Persians invaded a weak Egypt, then Greeks, Romans and Eastern Rome occupied Egypt. Byzantine suppression of pagans involved strict anti-pagan laws from the 4th to 6th centuries, banning sacrifices and closing temples, enforced by emperors like Theodosius I, Leo I, and Justinian, who imposed heavy taxes, disbarment, and even death penalties for rituals.  No-one today builds pyramids, Egyptian temples or statues of their gods. Muslims have museums in Egypt to preserve the relics just as Europeans do.

Babylon.
Persians, Greeks and Romans occupied Babylon and it was decayed by the 4th century. For four centuries until Islam, it was under Persian rule who spoke an Indo European language. No-one rebuilt the city or revived its religion, either there or in Europe. The Church of the East (the 'Persian Church' or 'Nestorian Church') had a bishop in Babylon and was opposed to pagans such as Babylonians.

Islam today has oppressive regimes just as the Church and some European regimes were oppressive (and Russia is). Islam doesn't revive the Fertile Crescent cultures but neither did the populations there up to the 7th century, the Europeans to the 7th century or anybody in the world today. Greece and Rome teach knowledge from the region just as Islamic universities do.