Muslims Gave Us Zero

From Don Surber at the Daily Mail:

Muslims gave us zero

Barack Obama delivered the same myths about Muslim math that English lit professors have passed along for decades — and Rush Limbaugh called him on it.

The idea that there is a unified Muslim world (just down the road from the Buddhist community, but before you cross the Hindu Street) is as absurd as a unified Christian world. I mean 500 years after the Diet of Worms, Protestants and Catholics still argue over the wording of the Lord’s Prayer.

The pandering by Obama in Cairo, though, showed the misinformation that college professors have passed along to their students for year after year. Obama was a bright student.

OBAMA: “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam. It was Islam at places like Al-Azhar that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s renaissance and enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra, our magnetic compass and tools of navigation, our mastery of pens and printing, our understanding of how disease spreads and how it could be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires, timeless poetry and cherished music, elegant calligraphy, and places of peaceful contemplation — and throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

Sure, Mr. President, we have seen that religious tolerance in 60 years of refusing to diplomatic acknowledge the state of Israel, and your wife’s ancestors saw that racial equality in the Muslim auctions of African slaves.

This is to history what Al Gore’s global warming phrenology is to science.

RUSH: “OK. I know we’re not supposed to criticize Obama’s speech here. I know it’s going way off the reservation here to do this. But, folks, that is outrageous. This is simply outrageous. It was absurd, in fact. Let’s see. here do we start here? ‘It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra.’ No. The origins of algebra trace back to the ancient Babylonians. They were not Muslims. Algebra was temporarily developed by the ancient Greeks and later the English. ‘Our magnetic compass, tools of navigation,’ Islam gave us these? No. Recent research suggests that the compass may have been discovered by Central Americans, but if they didn’t do it, the Chinese are then its discoverers. In either case, be it the Chinese or the Central Americans, the compass was discovered centuries before the advent of Islam.

“Now, what am I supposed to say? I’m not supposed to say this stuff. Now, let’s see, let’s see. ‘Our mastery of pens and printing…’ Has anybody ever heard of Gutenberg? I didn’t know Gutenberg was a Muslim. ‘Our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed…’? Are there Nobel Prizes for Medicine awarded to Muslims I have missed? ‘Islamic has given us some majestic arches and soaring spires…’ Well, sorry, folks, but arches and spires predate the arrival of Islam by centuries. I mean, come on, folks. Arches? Anybody heard of Rome? He also talked about the great gift, ‘timeless poetry and cherished music.’ The only problem there is that music — and musical instruments especially — are forbidden in most Islamic traditions. And it should be unnecessary to have to note Islam’s ‘religious tolerance’ has been demonstrated.”

Rush is right. The fact is socialist professors have idealized the Islamic faith and created out of midair this ridiculous fantasy about Spain being a great place for other religions under Moorish rule.

I am glad someone in the American media called Obama on this. More Rush is here.