Photo Credit: The Lasso of Truth

Somewhere in this world there is a book being passed around to very gullible morons on the greatness of Islam and its contributions to modern civilization. Every so often I get a comment or email asking me why I do not blog on the great contemporary achievements of Muslims while the idiot asking this question mentions some supposed discovery or invention by Muslims.

Let me give you an example: reader Andre from Melbourne, Australia, unhappy with my article The Arab Contribution to Civilization: Nothing Lately left this silly, unsubstantiated comment:

what about the number of feed the poor type organisations(red cross, medecin sans frontiere) actually created by arabs?

Where do Muslims get this stuff? A simple google search will readily disclose that the International Committee of the Red Cross was founded by a Swiss Calvinist, Henri Dunant ¹, who coincidentally also inspired the creation of the Geneva Conventions.

Perhaps this person means Arabs invented the Red Crescent Organization. Sorry, a knockoff does not qualify as invention. As one can see from the picture of the Red Cross Nurse above, one thing the Red Crescent will never successfully knock off is Red Cross Hotties.

As for Médicins Sans Frontières, again a simple search reveals that Doctors without Borders was founded by non-Arab French doctors ².

Muslims Invented the Concept of Zero

Because Arabs and Muslims have done nothing lately, Muslims find themselves forced to fall back on ancient glories even though some of their greatest "contributions" were not theirs at all. Here is the oft-repeated lie: Muslims Invented the Concept of Zero. A Muslim reader left this comment to an article at a news blog (emphasis mine):

Now Public, Islamic Leaders to Non-Muslims: Do not Question Islam

Sad to say, as a result of the translation errors in the Bible, (3500) it is a book full of contradictions. The Quran has zero (the concept of the number zero was invented by a muslim).

The blogosphere is littered with Muslim attempts to convince readers of this same lie. At the Pakistan Defence Forums you will find Pakistani Muslims trying to convince readers that zero was invented in Muslim Pakistan.

Here is the truth: Muslims did not invent zero but merely helped pass the concept along ³. Imagine if a sportscaster demanded to be included in the Baseball Hall of Fame simply because he reported that Babe Ruth hit his 714th home run. Hey, Ahmed, reality check: merely transmitting information does not entitle you to wear a cloak of greatness.

You may object, "Hey Bernie, it's only an Arab here and there that believe that Arabs have contributed anything of value lately. I'm sure most Arabs know that all of the Arab countries are quite backward."

Actually the majority of Arabs are in denial. In the following video we hear that 73% of the viewers of a particular Arab TV station believe that Arabs constitute a great power when in fact they are deluding themselves. According to Algerian author Anwar Malek, Arabs today are afflicted with fantasies and obsolete bravado and are worthless and backward. It's not pleasant to hear but it's the truth.

Sadly, Anwar is also under the delusion that Arabs of old invented zero, but in regard to modern Arabs - he has them pegged perfectly. While the discussion never turned on the true source for modern Arab backwardness, I offer that it is Islam that is keeping Arabs primitive and unproductive.

A tip of the turban to Bare Naked Islam for the video link.

Notes

(1):

Wiki, Henry Dunant

Jean Henri Dunant (May 8, 1828 – October 30, 1910), aka Henry Dunant or Henri Dunant, was a Swiss businessman and social activist. During a business trip in 1859, he was witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in modern day Italy. He recorded his memories and experiences in the book A Memory of Solferino which inspired the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1863. The 1864 Geneva Convention was based on Dunant's ideas. In 1901 he received the first Nobel Peace Prize together with Frédéric Passy.

(2):

Wiki, Médecins Sans Frontières

Médecins Sans Frontières was created in 1971 by a small group of French doctors in the aftermath of the Biafra secession, who believed that all people have the right to medical care regardless of race, religion, creed or political affiliation, and that the needs of these people supersede respect for national borders.

The organization is known in most of the world by its French name or simply as MSF, but in the United States, Canada, Australia and Ireland the name 'Doctors Without Borders' is often used instead.

(3):

Wiki, History of Zero

The oldest known text to use a decimal place-value system, including a zero, is the Jain text from India entitled the Lokavibhâga, dated 458 CE. This text uses Sanskrit numeral words for the digits, with words such as the Sanskrit word for void for zero

[Regarding links to Wikipedia, see my Wiki disclaimer]