World

Here's what the world would look like without Muslims

According to a study last year, over 50% of Britons believe that Islam is a danger to Western liberal democracy

News Desk June 10, 2016

According to a study last year, over 50% of Britons believe that Islam is a danger to Western liberal democracy. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

Muslims have made significant contributions to modern day inventions, yet one extremist activity tends to make people forget about all those great inventions which benefit them in their daily lives.

According to a study last year, over 50% of Britons believe that Islam is a danger to Western liberal democracy.

11 Muslim inventions that shaped the modern world

But if all Muslims were what the world perceives them to be then shouldn't coffee, which was invented by Muslims, be some sort of an instant-bomb?

One Tumblr user posed a very simple question, with a very inflammatory image:

"Imagine a world without Muslims," the post read.

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PHOTO SOURCE: MIC.COM/TUMBLR

But what followed was a response with a list of things invented by or significantly developed by Muslims and the Islamic world:

Coffee, cameras (first optic camera, Ibn al-Haytham), experimental physics, chess, soap, perfume/spirits, irrigation, crank-shaft, internal combustion engine, valves, pistons, combination locks.

The list doesn't end here:

Architectural innovation (pointed arch -European Gothic cathedrals adopted this technique as it made the building much stronger, rose windows, dome buildings, round towers, etc).

Pakistan-born scientist played part in discovery of gravitational waves

Following the list of inventions, the post stated, "Just imagine a world without Muslims. Now I think you probably meant, just imagine a world without terrorists. And then I would agree, the world would definitely be a better place without those pieces of filth.

"But to hold a whole group responsible for the actions of a few is ignorant and racist. No one would ever expect Christians or White people to be held responsible for acts of Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma bombing) or Anders Breivik (Norway killing), or the gun man that shot Congresswoman Giffords in head, wounded 12 and killed 6 people, and rightly so because they had nothing to do with those incidents! Just like the rest of the 1.5 billion Muslims have nothing to do with this incident!"

COMMENTS (8)

Mj | 8 years ago | Reply Most of these are inaccurate. ET should fact check first. Also, no one denies the contributions of wise muslim scientists. Science does not rely on religion of the practitioner for developments and breakthroughs, but rather builds upon the work performed by predecessors. There is no Islamic science, or Hindu/Christian/Jewish/Atheistic science; there is just science.

Udaya Bose | 8 years ago | Reply @Shaukat: You are right. It is like the Hindu bragging that goes on in India - "centuries ago we did this and discovered that"

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Rahi milla | 8 years ago | Reply There would have been no massacres of Hiroshima and Nagasaki if there were no Europeans in the world.@Shakeel Ahmed:

Jim | 8 years ago | Reply Completely disingenuous article. 1.) None of these inventions were invented due to someone being muslims. Some of them just happened to be Muslim. Their religion has nothing to do with it. , nor does it make the religion any less archaic. 2.) Any of these inventions would have soon been created by someone else if these people hadn't. 3.) Most of the things listed weren't even invented by Muslims. The first camera was a combined effort by a variety of inventors including Johann Zahn, Alexander Wolcott, and a few others. None Muslim. Soap was used for ages, long before Islam. Both pre-Islamic Egypt and Rome used it. Chess originated in India, not the Muslim Middle East. I'd say around 80% of your claims are just plain wrong. Most of them either were invented in China, India, or later in Europe.

Shaukat | 8 years ago | Reply No need to go overboard with the list of 'inventions' by Muslims! Every new discovery is built upon the shoulders of those who have gone before. Let us try and answer Sun tau , tired ourselves out after a few centuries of ruling the civilized world, then there was .no back-up to the destruction of Baghdad by Halaku in the 13th C ... No printing press and no disc drive. Most important we stopped being curious or asking questions, and now we are seeing the unfinished business of de-colonization.... let us stop moaning, do some house cleaning for a change, nurture the thinking mind, throw out medieval cultural baggage.

Sun tzu | 8 years ago | Reply Why is nothing in the list from recent centuries or decades?

Shakeel Ahmed | 8 years ago | Reply What a world without Europeans would look like; The continents of North America, South America and Australia would still be populated with the native people of these lands, rather than the descendants of Europeans. There would be no black people in the Americas, as they wouldn't have been enslaved and shipped to there. There would have been no colonies in Africa and Asia, the people of these continents would have their original cultures, their own societies, their own wealth. 29 million Indians would not have starved to death in the late 19th century. There would not have been world war 1 or world war 2. There would have been no wars in the middle east. 10 million Africans would not have been killed in the Congo.

kdp | 8 years ago | Reply You forgot to add invention of Internet. Just do not know the name of Muslim who invented it. Please help

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