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From: berke@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Arab tolerance
Message-ID: <7774@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 26-Nov-85 14:02:33 EST
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.7774
Posted: Tue Nov 26 14:02:33 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Nov-85 21:11:56 EST
References: <460@mhuxm.UUCP> <740@whuxl.UUCP> <10822@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: berke@ucla-cs.UUCP (Peter Berke)
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 30
Xref: lsuc net.politics:2207 net.religion.jewish:1624
Summary: Would you prefer the Moors or the Inquisition?

In article <778@sfmag.UUCP> rajeev@sfmag.UUCP (S.Rajeev) writes:
>Yakim Martillo writes:
>> 
>> Muslims over the past millenium have subjected non-Muslims under their
>> rule to systematic humiliation and degradation which are mandated by
>> all schools of Islamic jurisprudence.  Further the contempt which  Islam
>> encourages Muslims to feel toward non-Muslims has caused periodic persecution
>> and pogroms directed at non-Muslims in all corners of the Islamic world.
>... and more somewhat extreme anti-Muslim views.
>
>I would like to request that such displays of intolerance be kept off 

I believe that the above is also incorrect.  The mast millenium certainly
includes the middle ages.  I believe it is because of the religious tolerance
of the Islamic world that we call Arabic numerals Arabic.  I believe they
were originally Hindu, and the Arab conquerors at the height of their conquests
allowed the practice of religions other than their own, as opposed to, say,
the Catholic Church which consolidated and centralized its power through the
prevention of religious liberty.

I believe that Jews in Spain fared better under the Moors than they did under
the Inquisition, and I'm under the impression that it was through the
Jewish scholars who studied with Arab mathematicians that the Christian world
ended up receiving the ancient Greek and Hindu mathematics.  

Also, I believe pogrom is a Yiddish word derived from the Russian for 
devastation (Webster's Collegiate) and not really appropriately used 
here.

Peter Berke