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Archive for September, 2012

Why are Christians So Judgmental? Doesn’t the Bible Say, “Do Not Judge”

 

Judgmental Christians?

In the Sermon on the Mount of Olives, Jesus (Peace be upon him) preached that people should not judge others. In addition, in His handling of the woman caught in adultery, He said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” So, why are Christians always passing judgment on other people?

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged.”1 This command was given by Jesus (Peace be upon him) as He was preaching to the crowds on the Mount of Olives. This and similar verses are often cited as proof that Christians should not go around condemning others about their behavior. Is this what Jesus (Peace be upon him) meant when He gave this command? Why does it seem that Christians are always judging others?

 

What is being judgmental?

 

To begin the discussion, it would be good to know what the word “judgmental” really means. Here is the definition from the The American Heritage Dictionary2:

Definition of Judgmental

judg·men·tal (jŭj-měn’tl)

adjective

Of, relating to, or dependent on judgment

Inclined to make judgments, especially moral or personal ones

So, the word “judgmental” refers to making a judgment, especially about somebody’s moral or personal behavior. People tend to get upset about others who impugn their own personal behavior. Did Jesus (Peace be upon him) tell us not to do that? What about making general (non-personal) statements about what is right or wrong?

 

What did Jesus (Peace be upon him) say about judging others?

 

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus (Peace be upon him) actually had a lot more to say about judging others than just one sentence. Here is the verse in context of the other things Jesus (Peace be upon him) said about judging others:

 

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged. “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

 

What is clear from the context is that Jesus (Peace be upon him) was talking about people making personal judgments against others, when their own behavior was much more seriously compromised than the persons they were judging. Even when taken in context, the object of Jesus (Peace be upon him)’ statements is not readily evident in this sermon. However, in other preaching, Jesus (Peace be upon him) made it clear that He especially had a problem with the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious leaders of His time. In other confrontations with them, Jesus (Peace be upon him) made some pretty strong statements against those leaders:

 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness…” (Matthew 23:25-28)

There are many other verses that indicate that Jesus (Peace be upon him) was more unhappy about the behavior of hypocrites than just about anything else He encountered.3 So, His warning against judging others was primarily aimed at those who thought they were superior to others. In other words, get your own house in order before you criticize others.

Let him [without sin] first cast a stone

One of the most often cited verses in which Jesus (Peace be upon him) supposedly tells people not to judge each other is the one in which a woman was caught in adultery. Since it is good to read the story in context, it is reproduced in its entirety here:

Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus (Peace be upon him) stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus (Peace be upon him) said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus (Peace be upon him) said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” (John 8:1-11)

 

The first thing you should notice is that it was the scribes and Pharisees who brought the woman to Jesus (Peace be upon him). Obviously, from Jesus (Peace be upon him)’ description of their lifestyle (above), it would seem likely that they were up to no good. There are some major problems with their story. Although they supposedly cite the law of Moses, they didn’t get it quite right. In fact, the law says that both the man and the woman are to be executed.4 So, it would seem that they “forgot” to bring the man. Since she was caught “in the very act,” it seems likely that the man was probably one of them. Jesus (Peace be upon him) handled the situation by writing in the dirt. Although the text does not say what He wrote, it is likely that He was writing down the sins of those who wanted to stone the woman. The ones who had lived the longest (and accumulated the most sins) left first. Did Jesus (Peace be upon him) excuse the woman’s sin? No! In fact, He told her not to do it again. Instead of being an example of the “non-judgmental” Jesus (Peace be upon him), it is yet another story of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. In addition, since Jesus (Peace be upon him) had told her not to sin again, He would be accused of being “judgmental” by many people of our time.

 

Jesus (Peace be upon him) was “judgmental”

 

If Jesus (Peace be upon him) wanted people to not be “judgmental” or judge other people’s sin, He certainly did not take His own advice. In fact, Jesus (Peace be upon him) often told people how to behave and specifically told them not to sin.5 If Jesus (Peace be upon him) really did not want people to be judgmental, why was He that way Himself?

 

To judge or not to judge: that is the question

 

So, what did Jesus (Peace be upon him) mean when He said not to judge others, if He Himself was telling people how to conduct their lives? There are other sayings of Jesus (Peace be upon him) that clarify what Jesus (Peace be upon him) objected to when people judged each other:

 

“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:24)

Not All Muslims Are Terrorists

So, it would seem that Jesus (Peace be upon him)’ major concern is that people do not make snap judgments from what they guess might have happened. Many people (both Christians and non-Christians) tend to fall into this kind of judgment problem, if they are not careful to check the facts carefully. For example, one should not judge a person based upon the group to which he belongs. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Christians are hypocrites. Not all atheists practice rampant immorality. Notice that the verse does not tell us not to judge at all, but to judge according to righteousness. If we cannot verify the truth about an accusation, we should keep our mouths shut. For this reason, you will not find any personal judgments about others on this website. This does not mean that we will not dispute the facts or opinions expressed by certain individuals. However, such critiques are not personal attacks, but are usually related to a defense of the Christian faith.

 

Judging right and wrong

 

I have received a few complaints that godandscience.org is judgmental. As stated previously, the site judges no other person’s particular morals. So, people who make the claim that Christians are judgmental are really referring to Christians’ judgment between right and wrong. However, every person (with the possible exception of those who are judged to be criminally insane) on earth makes judgments between right and wrong, in order to make decisions about how to live one’s life. Of course, the reasons why people say that Christians are judgmental is because they disagree with the moral judgments we make. They, however, are not making any kind of judgment in claiming we are!

 

Why do Christians make moral judgments? The Bible commands people of faith (both Christians and Jews) to make moral judgments. The Old Testament tells us to warn those who practice wicked things to turn from their evil ways.6 Jesus (Peace be upon him) asked people why they would not judge what was the right thing to do,7 and instructed believers to admonish those brothers who practice sin.8 Paul reprimanded the Church at Corinth for not judging sin within their assembly.9 In fact, the Church is directed to condemn and remove sin from among its ranks first and foremost.10 The news media loves to point out sin committed by famous pastors and other hypocritical Christians. However, we are admonished that we need not judge individuals outside the church, since they be judged by God.11

Our nation judges the morality of behaviors

Although many people say that they don’t think that others should make moral judgments, they soon change their mind when somebody does something immoral against them. Our nation’s constitution (United States of America) is based upon three branches of government, one of which is assigned to judge the morality of behaviors. The judicial branch of the United States government decides the morality of the actions of its citizens and punishes those who break those moral laws. Murder, assault, rape, fraud, theft, and numerous other behaviors are judged as being immoral. The idea that “you cannot legislate morality” is clearly false, since our legislative branches of government can and do make laws against a host of behaviors that have been declared as unacceptable. In fact, in the state of California, not only do we make laws against moral behaviors, but we make laws to force businesses to train people not to commit certain immoral behaviors.12

 

Conclusion

 

Christians are often accused of being judgmental. However, what most people consider to be judgmental is merely telling others what the Bible says are unacceptable behaviors. Christians tell others what the Bible says about behavior because we are commanded to do so, so that others may lead morally acceptable lives. However, we are specifically commanded not to judge the behavior of individuals for whom we do not have absolute certainty of the truth regarding their actions. The Christian Church is to remove sin from within its own ranks first and foremost before condemning the actions of outsiders.

 

Why are Christians So Intolerant? Wasn’t Jesus (Peace be upon him) All Accepting?

Why Do Christians Lie So Much? Truth and Christianity

Why Are So Many Christians Hypocrites?

Self-righteous Christians: Is This the Norm?

The Threat of Radical Christianity: Christians are Involved Too Much in Politics?

What About Atrocities That Have Been Done in the Name of Religion

References

 

“Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” (Matthew 7:1)

judgmental. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved June 18, 2007, from Dictionary.com website.

“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. (Matthew 6:2)

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. (Matthew 6:5)

“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. (Matthew 6:16)

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:5)

“You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: (Matthew 15:7)

But Jesus (Peace be upon him) perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? (Matthew 22:18)

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. (Matthew 23:13)

[“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation.] (Matthew 23:14)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. (Matthew 23:15)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. (Matthew 23:25)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27)

“So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:28)

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, (Matthew 23:29)

and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:51)

And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. (Mark 7:6)

“Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.” (Mark 12:15)

“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. (Luke 6:42)

Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. (Luke 12:1)

“You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time? (Luke 12:56)

But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? (Luke 13:15)

‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)

“But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.” (Matthew 5:37)

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7)

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ (Matthew 7:23)

And Jesus (Peace be upon him) knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? (Matthew 9:4)

“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” (Matthew 12:34)

“The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.” (Matthew 12:35)

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;” (Matthew 12:39)

“Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:45)

“The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,” (Matthew 13:41)

“For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.'” (Matthew 15:4)

“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” (Matthew 15:19)

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.” (Matthew 16:4)

“So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:28)

“Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12)

“For Moses said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER’; and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH’;” (Mark 7:10)

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,” (Mark 7:21)

“All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” (Mark 7:23)

“You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'” (Mark 10:19)

“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” (Luke 6:45)

“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)

“You know the commandments, ‘DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'” (Luke 18:20)

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)

“For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:20)

Afterward Jesus (Peace be upon him) *found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” (John 5:14)

and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:29)

Jesus (Peace be upon him) answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.” (John 6:43)

“The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” (John 7:7)

She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus (Peace be upon him) said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” (John 8:11)

Jesus (Peace be upon him) answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” (John 8:34)

Jesus (Peace be upon him) said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” (John 9:41)

“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” (John 15:22)

“If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.” (John 15:24)

Jesus (Peace be upon him) answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” (John 19:11)

“When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. “Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself. (Ezekiel 3:18-19)

“When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. “But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life. (Ezekiel 33:8-9)

“And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right?” (Luke 12:57)

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. (Matthew 18:15)

“Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. (Luke 17:3)

‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; (Revelation 2:2)

‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. (Revelation 2:20)

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? (1 Corinthians 6:2-3)

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus (Peace be upon him) Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. (2 Thessalonians 3:6)

If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15)

Reject a factious man [within the congregation] after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned. (Titus 3:10-11)

But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler–not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES. (1 Corinthians 5:11-13)

Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:1-4)

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? (James 4:12)

I said to myself, “God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man,” for a time for every matter and for every deed is there. (Ecclesiastes 3:17)

“I, the LORD, have spoken; it is coming and I will act. I will not relent, and I will not pity and I will not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I will judge you,” declares the Lord GOD.'” (Ezekiel 24:14)

on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus (Peace be upon him). (Romans 2:16)

But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. (Romans 14:10)

For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” (Hebrews 10:30)

Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)

An example is AB1825, which requires California employers to provide 2 hours of training for all supervisors every two years about the evils of sexual harassment.

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/why_are_christians_judgmental.html

About the Author

Richard Deem earned his bachelor of science degree in biological sciences at the University of Southern California. He received his master of science degree in microbiology from California State University, Los Angeles, and has been working in basic science research since 1976. He has authored and co-authored a number of studies, included several areas of molecular biology and genetics, immunology, inflammatory bowel disease (1-17), natural killer cells (18-22), and infectious diseases (23-24). In addition, he has presented his work at a number of national and international scientific meetings.

Mr. Deem has been working for Dr. Stephan Targan since 1983 and is employed as a Researcher/Specialist in the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He is currently collaborating with Dr. Rivkah Gonsky on the role of T-cells in inflammatory bowel disease, specifically on transactivating nuclear factors involved in activation pathways of lamina propria (gut-associated) T-cells.

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إقرا, “Read”! Internet Resources:Muslim Contributions to Civilization: Past and Present

IQRA Internet Resources

إقرا, “Read”

Modern Scholars

Dr.Rachida El Diwani

Professor of Comparative Literature

Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

http://www.lssu.edu/faculty/jswedene/Fulbright.html

Dr.Akbar Ahmed

Professor 
School of International Service

  • Additional Positions at AU

    Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies


http://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/akbar.cfm

Muslim Contributions to Civilization: Past and Present

Islam and Science

(Article) Science and Civilization in Islam (Seyyed Hossein Nasr)

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/nasr.html

Overview of Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts (National Library of Medicine Exhibit)

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/islamic_medical/islamic_00.html

Resource page of Islam SET (Science, Environment and Technology) (www.islamset.com) http://www.islamset.com/introd.html

i. History of Islamic Science

http://www.islamset.com/heritage/history.html

ii. History of Muslim Pharmacology

http://www.islamset.com/heritage/pharmacy/index.html

History of Islamic Biomedicine (links to many articles on this topic, including chronology of Muslim civilization) http://www.mic.ki.se/Arab.html

Numbers

http://www.islamic-paths.org/Home/English/History/Literature/Arabic_Numerals.htm

Environment

Islam and the Environment, theory and practice (Dr. Mawil Izzi Dien)

http://www.lampeter.ac.uk/trs/staffgallery/mawil_paper.html

(Article) Islam and Ecology

http://www.crosscurrents.org/islamecology.htm

History and Civilization

History of Islamic Civilization

http://www.islamset.com/islam/civil/index.html

– and –

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook.html

IV.

Islam in Southeast Asia i. Medieval Manuscripts

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/1655bernier.html

ii. History of the Mughals

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MUGHAL/MUGHAL.HTM

Human Rights

HIGHCOMMISSIONERFORHUMANRIGHTSORGANIZINGEXPERTSEMINARTODISCUSS ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES ON UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (press release) http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/F46C9D5A47F671DB802566AD005BB845?opendocument

(Article) Human Rights and Islam: Some Points of Convergence and Divergence (Ali Salman)

http://www.renaissance.com.pk/octvipo2y1.html

(Article – good one) Antecedents of the idea of Human Rights: A Survey of Perspectives (Polly Vizard) (Section 3.1) http://www.undp.org/hdro/Vizard2000.html

(Article – with reference to specific scholars) Muslim Support for Human Rights

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7185/Religion/muslim.hr.htm

http://www.islamagainstextremism.com/articles/gmdsi-the-cold-war-on-british-muslims—report-on-anti-muslim.cfm

Influence of Islamic Culture on Western Civilization

http://www.netiran.com/Htdocs/Clippings/Social/950300XXSO02.html

– and – http://www.ais.org/~bsb/Herald/Previous/95/science.html (The Middle Ages) -and – http://mercury.spaceports.com/~islam/index2.htm (The Renaissance)

Islam in Africa

The Advent of Islam in Africa

http://web-dubois.fas.harvard.edu/DuBois/Baobab/narratives/islam/islam.html

– and – http://web-dubois.fas.harvard.edu/dubois/baobab/narratives/islam/WestTrade.html (West Africa) – and – http://baobab.harvard.edu/narratives/islam/EastTrade.html (East Africa)

http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/hunwick.html

Accounts of Ibn Battuta’s Travels

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.html

 

Treatment of Minorities http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.html (The Pact of Umar) – and – http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jews-umar.html (The Pact of Umar, another version) – and – http://www.islamfortoday.com/minorities.htm

Woman’s Contribution to Islamic Thought

Women and the Interpretation of Islamic Sources (Heba Raouf Ezzat)

http://www.islam21.net/pages/keyissues/key2-6.htm

Women in Islam (Jamal Badawi)

http://www.iad.org/books/S-women.html

EssaysandpositionpapersonWomen’sRightsinIslam(MuslimWomen’sLeague)

http://www.mwlusa.org/publications.html

Pluralism & Civil Society

ReligionandCivilisationalDialogue(SeyyedHosseinNasr)

http://www.islam21.net/pages/keyissues/key3-18.htm

Democratic Principles: An Islamic Point of View (Azizah Al- Hibri)

http://www.islam21.net/pages/keyissues/key3-6.htm

The Arts and Humanities

Overview of Islamic Literature

http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/islamlit.htm

– and –

http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/cultureliterature.html

History and types of Islamic Literature

http://search.ebi.eb.com/ebi/article/0,6101,34778,00.html

By Region

VII.

Pakistan

http://islamic-arts.org/2011/sadequain’s-islamic-calligraphy/

Urdu Literature

http://www.urdustudies.com/pdf/20/06Oesterheld.pdf

Sufism Tassawuf

http://www.allamaiqbal.com/publications/journals/review/oct88/5.htm

Middle East (Arabic, Persian, Turkish) (a) Overview of Persian Literature

http://www.bartleby.com/65/pe/Perslit.html

(b) Overview of Iraqi Literature

http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/nvbrada/braddog/Literature/Literature.html

 

D. Art

(c) Overview of Turkish Islamic Literature

http://turkey.org/culture/c_liter2.htm

ii. Central Asia (a) (Article) Literature in Turko-Islamic Culture

http://eurasianews.com/erc/004cam.htm

iii. South Asia

(a) Islamic Literature in Indonesia

http://www.indonesianheritage.com/Encyclopedia/Early_Modern_History/Islam_And_Port_Sultans/Islamic_Literat ure/islamic_literature.html

– and –

http://www.indonesianheritage.com/Encyclopedia/Ancient_History/Heritage_Of_Indonesian/Early_Islamic_Literatu re/early_islamic_literature.html

i. Overview of Islamic Art

http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/cultureart.html

ii. Introduction to Islamic Art

http://www.lacma.org/islamic_art/islamic.htm

iii. (Article) Muslim Art in Contemporary Britain

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3950810,00.html

iv. (Article) Turkish Islamic Art

http://sircasaray.turkiye.org/anadolu/tezhib.html

v. Calligraphy (Articles by Mamoun Sakkal)

http://www.sakkal.com/ArtArabicCalligraphy.html

E. Photo Galleries i. Online Museum Exhibitions of Islamic Art

(a) Detroit Institute of Art

http://www.dia.org/collections/ancient/islamicart/islamicart.html

(b) Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/department.asp?dep=14 (click on “VIEW 1 AT A TIME” on top)

(c) Los Angeles County Museum of Art

http://www.lacma.org/islamic_art/thumbnails/thmbnail.htm

(d) Tarek Rajab Museum (Kuwait)

http://www.trmkt.com/Gallery.htm

ii. Images of Islam

http://www.tulane.edu/~MECCA/images/images_islam.html

iii. Peter Sanders Photography

http://www.middleeastuk.com/culture/art/sanders/gallery.htm

– and –

http://www.ummah.org.uk/sanders/gallery.htm

iv. Islamic Art and Architecture http://www.islamicart.com/main/architecture/index.html (click on “Gallery”)

v.

Links to other Islamic Art sites (Art and Architecture)

http://islamicity.com/education/culture/

– and – http://www.islamicart.com/ (Islamic Arts and Architecture Organization: good source on images and articles: Architecture, Calligraphy, Coins, Oriental Rugs)

F. Music

i. Project compiling music from Islamic Countries

http://www.blacksun.com/islam.htm

ii. Persian Music

http://www.pbs.org/visavis/BTVPages/Persian_trad_music.html

Sampler of Muslim World Music (requires RealPlayer) http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/IslArt.html#Music

VIII. Architecture

A. Overview of Islamic Architecture

http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/culturearch.html

B. Brief History of Islamic Architecture

http://users.telerama.com/~jdehullu/islam/frames.htm

C. EssaysonPrinciplesofIslamicArchitecture http://www.islamicart.com/main/architecture/index.html (click on “Articles”)

D. (Article)ImagesinPersianarchitecture

http://www.persianart.net/libreries/article/PEACOCK.htm

E. (Article) Muslim Spain

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/4205/22279

F. (Article) Turkish Mosques

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/arabic_islamic_architecture/20882

G. (Article) Taj Mahal

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/arabic_islamic_architecture/25875

H. Links to other Islamic Architecture sites (Art and Architecture)

http://islamicity.com/education/culture/

IX. Biographies

A. Brief biographies of major figures in Islamic civilization

http://members.tripod.com/~wzzz/

– and – Muslim Scientists, Mathematicians, and Astronomers before the European Renaissance (700 – 1500 A.D.) – listing of scholars and articles on different aspects of civilization in the Muslim world http://users.erols.com/zenithco/index.html

B. Scientists

i. Ibn Khaldun (historiography) – comprehensive links to websites with biographies, articles and excerpts of his writings http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/ibnkhaldun/

ii. Tabari (historiography)

http://www.mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/tabarit.htm

– and –

http://users.erols.com/zenithco/tabari.html

– and –

http://members.tripod.com/~wzzz/TABARI.html

iii. Khawarezmi (math, chemistry)

iv. Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

v. Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=11566&tocid=0

– and –

http://www.ummah.net/history/scholars/ibn_sina/

– and –

http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Avicenna.html

vi. Al-Farabi vii. Al-Razi (physician, introduced concept of “hospital”, vaccine for small pox) viii. Ibn Al-Haytham (optometry)

C. Poets and Writers

i. Rumi http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/sources/rumi.html (look up) – and – http://www.armory.com/~thrace/sufi/ (Selected poems)

ii. Khalil Gibran iii. Omar Khayyam

http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/learning/khayyam.html

iv. TheTravels of IbnBatuta

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/batuta.html

D. Music

i. Yusuf Islam ii. Umm Kulthum

http://almashriq.hiof.no/egypt/700/780/umKoulthoum/

Bibliography

Brentwood School Online: Islamic Culture (website created by students compiling essays written and a photo gallery) http://www.bwscampus.com/School/Hist/NWWC/islamic-culture.html

UNESCO book, Different Aspects of Islamic Culture

http://www.unesco.org/culture/aic/html_eng/volumes.htm

Providence Library compiled a suggested book list on the following topics:

Arts of Islam and the Arabic World http://www.provlib.org/community/links/arabicartlist.htm Music of Islam and the Arabic World http://www.provlib.org/community/links/arabmusic.htm Literature of Islam and the Arabic World http://www.provlib.org/community/links/arablit.htm

http://www.mei.columbia.edu/HANDOUT13.PDF

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Islamic Contributions to the Development of Western Civilization

As-Salamu Alaykum (السلام عليكم) is an Arabic greeting used by Muslims around the world. It literally means what is close to “Peace be upon you.”

Islamic Contributions to the West

Rachida El Diwani

Professor of Comparative Literature

Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Fulbright Visiting Specialist, Oct 22 – Nov 12, 2005

Lake Superior State University
Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783

 

  1. I. Introduction

 

  1. II. Islamicization of the West.

 

III. Islamic achievements in science.

 

A. Introduction: Unwillingness to recognize Islamic achievements.

B. Scientific method and rationalism.

C. Humanism, philosophy, scholasticism.

D. Mathematics

E. Astronomy

  1. F. Medicine

G. Material culture

  1. 1. commerce and seafaring
  2. 2. Agriculture and Minerals
  3. 3. the arts of “gracious living”
  • Industry
  • Architecture
  • Music
  • Books
  • Urban organization

IV. The spread of Islamic culture into Europe

 

  1. V. Conclusion

 

  • Recognizing the others


Islamic Contributions to the West

Rachida El Diwani

Professor of Comparative Literature

Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Fulbright Visiting Specialist, Oct 22 – Nov 12, 2005

Lake Superior State University
Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783

  1. I. Introduction

In this talk I would like to give an idea about the cultural contribution of the Islamic civilization to the West, the Islamic origins of modern science and civilization and the ascendancy of the Islamic science and learning for about 600 years in the world.

Therefore I’ll talk about the beginning of the Islamicization of the West, of the Influence of Muslims on Western philosophy, rationalism, experimental method, sciences, commerce, material life and arts of gracious living.

 

  1. II. Islamicization of the West.

“Islamicization of the West”, I will use this word for the diffusion and assimilation of Islamic culture in the West. This is distinct from Islamization which means the conscious acceptance and implementation of the ideal Islamic cultural patterns by non-Muslims and nominal Muslims. Islamicization is sociologically similar to, though not identical with, Westernization subject to the limits and conditions of imitative- innovative social change.

The Islamicization of the Medieval West, occurred, first, during the period ending around the middle of the eleventh century before systematic translations from Arabic into Western languages began; secondly during the age of Arabic translations coinciding with the little Renaissance of the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries; and third, during the Catholic-Protestant Reformation and Renaissance of the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries.

The very presence of Muslims on Western soils (Spain, Sicily) was creating a complex situation. On the one hand, Islamic civilization on Western land was allowing a different way of living and thinking much superior to that one existing in the rest of Europe. On the other hand, it was giving bad feelings to the Christians towards those Muslims inhabiting Latin neighboring countries.

The transformation of the West during these centuries until the sixteenth, passed through several stages of contact and conflict with Islamic culture. The West resorted to various strategies vis-à-vis “the problem of Islam” (R.W. Southern, Western Views of Islam). Until about the end of the eleventh century, the Western views of ideal Islam and its cultural and military triumphant civilization were fostered by sheer ignorance, fanaticism, hatred toward Islam and the Muslims, Biblical exegesis, and relative intellectual and physical isolation. This led to the expected apogee of Western Zealot type response: the Crusades of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The extensive contacts with the superior Islamic culture and Muslims during the Crusades ushered in a new era in Western self-consciousness, and awakened responses to Islamic culture. The highest intellectual achievements of the West during these two centuries, twelfth and thirteenth, comprised the imitation of Islamic science and learning. Universities were found in the West patterned on the Muslim universities to assimilate the new knowledge made available by translations of the works in Arabic and, to a lesser extent, of Greek classics which have been superseded by the Muslims.

 

  1. III. Islamic achievements in science.

A. Introduction: Unwillingness to recognize Islamic achievements.  

Many European scholars who approach the subject of Arab contributions to science and philosophy do it with prejudice against the Arabs. Even some of those who praise them do so grudgingly, Carra de Vaux in his chapter “Astronomy and mathematics’, in Legacy of Islam felt compelled to begin by disparaging the Arabs. He said: “we must not expect to find among the Arabs the same powerful genius, the same gift of scientific imagination, the same “enthusiasm”, the same originality of thought that we have among the Greeks. The Arabs are before all else the pupils of the Greeks, their science is a continuation of Greek science which it preserves, cultivates, and on a number of points develops and perfects.” This is what Carra de Vaux began by saying on the Arabs but a moment later he elaborated and conceded that: “the Arabs have really achieved great things in science; they taught the use of ciphers (sc. Arabic numerals), although they did not invent them, and thus became the founders of the arithmetic of every day; they made algebra an exact science and developed it considerably and laid the foundations of analytical geometry; they were indisputably the founders of plane and spherical trigonometry which, properly speaking, did not exist among the Greeks. In astronomy they made a number of valuable observations.”

The Arabs, with a great open mind went through a gigantesque translation movement from Greek, Indian, and Syriac. Al Ma’mum, the Abbassid Khalif, had founded at the beginning of the ninth century “the house of Wisdom” (bayt el Hikmah) especially for translations. The Arabs assimilated these works of the ancient and developed them. Philosophy, Mathematics, Astronomy and Medicine were the first subjects to attract the interest of Muslims.

 

B. Scientific method and rationalism. 

The scientific or inductive method of inquiry was the greatest boon the Islamic culture had bestowed upon the West. Muslim thinkers were using the inductive method in their scientific investigation in different fields. AlRazi and Ibn al Haitham expounded particularly this method. Ibn Hazm, in his studies of logic emphasized sense-perception as a source of knowledge. Later Ibn Taymiyah, refuting the Aristotelian logic showed that induction was the only form of reliable inference.

It was the method of observation and experiment which led Al-Biruni to the discovery of reaction time, al-Kindi to the formula that sensation is a response of the organism proportionate to the stimulus, and Ibn Al Haitham to his findings in optics.

Briffault, in The Making of Humanity, (London, 1928, pp. 200-201) wrote: “the debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries of revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence.”

The ancient world was pre-scientific. The astronomy and mathematics of the Greeks were a foreign importation never thoroughly acclimatized in Greek culture. The Greeks systematized, generalized, and theorized, but the patient ways of investigation, the accumulation of positive knowledge, the minute methods of science, detailed and prolonged observation and experimental inquiry were altogether alien to the Greek temperament. Only in Hellenistic Alexandria was any approach to scientific work conducted in the ancient classical world. What we call science arose in Europe as a result of a new spirit of inquiry, of new methods of investigation, of the methods of experiment, observation, and measurement, of the development of mathematics in a form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and those methods were introduced into the European world by the Arabs.

 

C. Humanism, philosophy, scholasticism.

Muslim philosophy influenced Western thought in several ways. It mainly initiated in the West the humanistic movement and helped the Western scholastics in harmonizing philosophy with faith.

Muslims gave a humanist bend to the Western mind. They revealed to the West that outside the prevailing catholic church it was not all darkness and barbarism but immense wealth of knowledge. Before any direct contact between the Greek intellect and the Western mind was established, Arabs had captured and further developed all the intellectual achievements of Greece. It was also due to their influence that men outside the Christian West began to be considered as human and even possessors of higher civilizations.

Long before the Crusades, an Islamic rationalism, had existed in Muslim Spain and Muslim Sicily on Western soil and had been radiating from there to banish the Christian –Western “ Dark Age”. The Muslim idealistic rationalists precede the Jewish and Christian scholastics. Latin Christendom was borrowing and assimilating Islamic ideological culture, directly from original Arabic sources and the Latin translations of the works of Al- Ghazali, Al kindi, Al Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd and others. Indirectly also through the translated works of Jewish scholastics (Maimonides) who had come even under deeper Islamic influences (G. Sarton, An Introduction to History of Science, 1:626, 694, 701).

It is now an established fact of the history of science that the Christian scholastics did borrow from the Islamic philosophy (E.Gilson, History of Christian philosophy in the Middle Ages; – sheriff, M.M. (Ed) A History of Muslim Philosophy.; G.Sarton, An Introduction to History of science. St. Albert and St. Thomas were among the great imitative- innovative assimilators of Islamic ideological culture. Sorokin cited the theory of knowledge of St. Thomas as an example of “a European variety of Platonic- Aristotelian idealistic rationalism” (Social and Cultural Dynamics, 2:99, 97ff). Reverend Hammond proved by placing in parallel columns passages from their works that St. Thomas plagiarized the ideas as well as the phraseology of Al Farabi concerning the theory of knowledge, and other ideas. (R. Hammond, The philosophy of al Farabi and its influence on Medieval thought). Sarton said St. Thomas “was deeply influenced by Muslim philosophy… chiefly by Al- Ghazali and Ibn Rushd, but his own point of view was fundamentally opposed to Averroism… The aim of his life was to reconcile Aristotelian and Muslim knowledge with Christian theology”. (Introduction, 2: 914f).

Philosophy and science were considered, in the West, up to the fifteenth century, as antagonistic to religion. Hence the teachings of Aristotelianism and Averroism were banned, Bruno was burnt, Kepler was persecuted and Galileo forced to retract. By harmonizing faith with reason Muslim thinkers made possible for themselves and for Europe, an unhampered development.

The Renaissance finally could install Aristotle on the throne of philosophy. Montgomery Walt expresses an interesting idea about the origin of the extreme love and admiration Europe had for Aristotle and the Classical thought in general. This phenomenon can be considered as another Islamic contribution to the Western culture. It is because Europe wanted to assert itself distinctly from the Islamic civilization that it assigned to Aristotle a central position in philosophy and science.

The main philosophical influence on the Christian thought at this period was Avicenna and Averroes, the two Muslim philosophers commenting Aristotle and building their philosophical systems on or against the Greek philosopher. Aristotle presented to the Christian scholars the opportunity to escape from the Muslim thought as such. Aristotle belonging to the classical past (Greek and Roman) of Europe was a positive complement to the Muslim sciences towards which the Christian scholars had turned to acquire their knowledge. Montgomery Watt says: “the purely negative activity of turning from Islam, especially when so much was being learnt from Arab sciences and philosophy would have been difficult, if not impossible, without a positive complement, the positive complement was the appeal to Europe’s classical past”     (The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe, p.79). Because Europe was reacting against Islam it exaggerated its dependence on its Roman and Greek heritage and belittled the influence of the Muslim one.

John Wycliffe (d. 1384), “the Morning star” of the Reformation called for a reform of the church, by imitation of the Muslims, but certainly without expressing his idea explicitly. (Sarton, Introduction, 3: 1346-50). He began a new era by pointing inwards at Christians and their own deficiencies as an explanation for their lack of success compared to the Muslims’ one. He believed the cause of Muslims’ success was their religion which sanctioned worldly pursuits, self-will and secular dominion. The success of Christendom depended on its development like the Muslims’, for Wycliffe said “Opposites are dissolved by their opposites”. (Southern, pp. 77-83; Sarton, 3: 1346-50).

The fifteenth century experienced continued Islamicisation of the West and a variety of responses to the challenge of Islamic culture. John of Segovia, a Spanish cardinal (d. 1458), advocated peaceful communication with the Muslims. At the other end was Jean Germain (d. 1461), a French bishop, interested in rallying Christendom to a sense of its own identity, preached a return to crusader militarism; above all, he hated those Christians- merchants and others, in increasing numbers- who traveled in Islam and came back with scruples and criticisms of the Christian faith. Unlike John of Segovia, he feared the contamination of discussion. (Southern, p.97). By that time the Islamised Turks had seized power in the Muslim world under the Ottoman dynasty. They had taken over the Balkans, Constantinople and were reaching the outposts of Western Europe.

Then came Martin Luther (d. 1546) after Wycliffe and others and claimed that there can be no solution to the problem of Islam until Christian reformation was completed. He strove to eliminate asceticism, monasticism, celibacy, mendicants, the domination of the church, the cult of saints and holy days, the indissolubility and sacredness of marriage. He even admitted  polygamy as lawful. He taught the sanctity of all work and rejected the notion of some works as holy. He emphasized the ethic of worldly success. (Southern, p. 104-7). Like Wycliffe, Luther rebelled against ecclesiastical authoritarianism and stressed the importance of individual reasoning and conscience as necessary to conduct independent study either to see God or to develop science and philosophy as was so well demonstrated by the success of the Islamic culture. Luther’s opponents were not wrong when they accused him of imitating Islamic tenets.

The works of St. Albert, St. Thomas and Roger Bacon represent basically a tremendous will to conquer learning primarily by borrowing from the Muslims. The Western myth of Roger Bacon as the founder of the experimental method has been exploded (Sarton, An Introduction, 2:952-67; Briffault, The Making of Humanity ) though it remains to this day esoteric knowledge. Bacon was a student and agent of diffusion in Europe of the well established scientific method of the Muslims. Bacon abandoned the Bible as an instrument for understanding the role of Islam in the World; he opposed the militant and zealot responses of the Crusades and Western obscurantism. He was convinced of the importance of learning Arabic and the Muslim sciences and philosophy as the only way to true knowledge for Christian Europe. (Southern, Western Views, pp 52-64). Even if Roger Bacon, like other medieval Western scholars, did not acknowledge his Islamic borrowings, part V of his Opus Majus is almost a copy of The Optics of Ibn al Haitham (d. 1039) (Southern, pp56-7). Bacon was one of the most outspoken agents of diffusion of Islamic culture in the West; for this he was imprisoned during the last fifteen years of his life.

The career of Frederic II, the semi-Muslim Hohenstaufen Emperor of Rome (1215-1250) exemplifies the Western Christian pre- Reformation ideological and institutional obstacles to Islamicization. He patronized translations of Arabic books and popularized them, established the first medieval Western university at Naples, and others at Messina and Padua. He introduced advanced Muslim medicine in the school of Salerno. Pope Gregory IX called him an anti- Christ and stirred revolts against him. Repeatedly excommunicated, vanquished, baffled, betrayed, harassed, disheartened, embittered by long years of strife and daily peril, Frederic II capitulated to the Pope and departed from Italy on a Crusade. In Jerusalem, this strangest of Crusaders, was received by Sultan Al Malik Al Kamil, as an honored friend. Discussing with the knowledgeable Sultan, mathematics and sciences, as well as the folly of men who like darkness rather than light, Frederic II exclaimed: “Happy Sultan who knows no pope” (Briffault, p.214). These were prophetic words pointing at the Christian institutional obstructions to Islamicisation. The concept of an anti- Christ was shifting from the Prophet Muhammad to Western Islamicisers and, at the hands of the Protestant reformers, to the Popes.

 

D. Mathematics

The first important name in mathematics is that of AL-khwarismi, known to the Latin scholars as Algorismus; from his name is derived the technical term “algorism” and he is the founder of the science of “Algebra”. Alkhawarismi was followed by many famous mathematicians, like AlKindi, AlSarakhsi, the three sons of Shakir Ibn Musa, the “Banu Musa”, Alhazen, the Brethren of Purity, etc…

The achievements of Islamic mathematics can be summarized as follow: the Muslims developed number theory in both its mathematical and metaphysical aspects. They generalized the concept of number beyond what was known to the Greeks. They devised new methods of numerical computation reaching their height with Alkashani in the eighth/fifteenth centuries. They also dealt with numerical series, decimal fractions, and similar branches of mathematics connected with numbers.

They systematized and developed the science of algebra, preserving always its links with geometry. They continued the work of the Greeks in solid and plane geometry and developed trigonometry, both plane and solid, working up accurate tables for the functions and discovering many trigonometric relations. This science, cultivated previously in conjunction with astronomy, was perfected and made into an independent science for the first time by Nasir al Din al Tusi in his famous Figure of the Sector, which represents major achievements in medieval mathematics. Muslims, above all, developed the “Arabic numbers” and thus made easier all the dealings done previously with the roman numbers encouraged to go beyond the mathematical operations and opened the mathematical horizons with the invention of the zero.

 

E. Astronomy

In Astronomy Muslims continued the Greek tradition while making extensive use of the knowledge of the Persians and Indians and integrated this new astronomical system into the Islamic world view. The several new features of Islamic astronomy include, besides all the refinements made in the Ptolemaic system, the star catalogue of Ulugh Beg, which was the first new catalogue since the time of Ptolemy, and the replacement of the calculus of chords by the calculus of sires and trigonometry. The Muslim astronomers also modified the general system of the Alexandrians in two important aspects. The first modification was to abolish the eight spheres which Ptolemy had hypothesized to communicate the diurnal movement to each of the heaven; the Muslims substituted a single starless heaven at the confines of the universe, above the heavens of fixed stars, which in undergoing diurnal motion carried all the heavens with it. The other modification, which had a greater significance for the philosophy of sciences, involved a change in the nature of the heavens. The abstract heavens of the Greeks were transformed into a solid body.

The Islamic astronomy continued to correct the mathematical shortcomings of the Ptolemaic model, but it did not break the bounds of the closed Ptolemaic system, which was so intimately tied to the medieval world view.

Later Muslim astronomers criticized various aspects of Ptolemaic astronomy, and Al Biruni knew of the possibility of the motion of the earth around the sun and an elliptic rather than circular motion of the planets. But none of them did, nor could they, take the step to break with the traditional worldview, as was to happen during the Renaissance in the West, because that would have meant not only a revolution in astronomy, but also an upheaval in the religious, philosophical and social domains.

As long as the hierarchy of knowledge remained intact in Islam, and sciences (scientia) continued to be cultivated in the bosom of wisdom (Sapientia), a certain “limitation” in the physical domain was accepted in order to preserve the freedom of expansion and realization in the spiritual domain. The wall of cosmos was preserved in order to guard the symbolic meaning which such a walled-in-vision of the cosmos presented to most of mankind.  For The great majority of men, it was difficult to conceive of the sky as some incandescent matter whirling in space and at the same time as the throne of God. And so, despite all the technical possibility, the step toward breaking the traditional world view was not taken, and the Muslims remained content with developing and perfecting the astronomical system that had been inherited from the Greeks, Indians and Persians, and which became fully integrated into the Islamic world view.

 

  1. F. Medicine 

Islamic medicine is one of the most famous and best known facets of Islamic civilization, being one of the branches of science in which the Muslims most excelled. The Muslim physicians were studied in the West until the 19th century. In the East, despite the rapid spread of Western medical education, Islamic medicine continues to be studied and practiced on a minor scale.

Islamic school of medicine which came into being early in the history of Islam is of great significance first for its intrinsic value, secondly because it has always been closely allied with the other sciences, and especially philosophy.

The wise man or Hakim, who has been throughout Islamic history the central figure in the propagation and transmission of sciences, has usually been a physician. The fact that both the sage and the physician are called Hakim shows the relationship between the two. Many of the best known philosophers and scientists in Islam, such as Avicenna and Averroes, were also physicians. The same thing holds true for the Jewish philosophers in the world of Islam. Maimonides besides being a great thinker was also the physician to Saladin.

The first generations of Muslims were having a simple medicine based on what became to be known as the Medicine of the Prophet (Tibb an-Nabi). Islam, as a guide for all aspects of human life, was concerned with the general principles of medicine and hygiene. Several verses of the Quran deal with medical questions of a very general order. There are also many sayings of the Prophet dealing with health, sickness, hygiene, and many questions related to the field of medicine. Their guidance has determined many of the Muslims dietary and hygienic habits.

To this typically Islamic medicine were integrated the Hippocratic and Galenic traditions of Greek medicine with the theories and practices of the Persians and Indians, within the general world view of Islam. It is therefore synthetic in nature, combining the observational and concrete approach of the Hippocratic school with the theoretical and philosophical method of Galen and adding to the already rich Greek tradition the theories and experiences of the Persian and Indian physicians. The Islamic medicine was seeking the concrete causes for individual phenomena rather than the general causes sought by the Peripatetic “natural philosophy.”

With medical texts of Greek, Pahlavi and Sanskrit origin translated into Arabic, and a sound technical vocabulary firmly established, the ground was prepared for the appearance of those giants whose work have dominated Islamic medicine ever since: Al Tabari, Rhazes, Ali ibn al Abbas, Avicenna, Averroes, Mesue Senior (yuhanna ibn Masawaih), Mesue Junior (Masawaih al Marindi) and many others.

The Muslim physicians taught their science in schools, mosques and hospitals. There were the theoretical teaching and the practical one. The hospitals were very cared for and all the sick persons were admitted and were receiving all the care  needed, plus clean and new clothes and enough money to live with until they were able to resume working.

It would be too long to speak about all the sciences the Muslims developed: History, Geography, Cosmography and Cosmology, the sciences of man, the city planning, Engineer architecture, Arts, etc…

Arts and sciences in Islam are based on the idea of Devine Unity, which is the heart of Islamic Revelation. Just as all genuine Islamic arts provide the plastic forms through which one can contemplate the Divine Unity manifesting itself in multiplicity, so do all Islamic sciences reveal the unity of Nature, which is an image of the unity of the Divine Principle. `

G. Material culture 

  1. 1. Commerce and Seafaring

Arab presence in Sicily and Spain from the eighth century onward and the European presence in the Levant during the two centuries of the Crusades had led to a certain adoption by Western Europeans of many features of Islamic culture. We should add to these relations those resulting from the trade and commerce Arabs had been carrying out throughout the lands under Islamic domination and far beyond these frontiers.

The Arabs in the West wanted the material luxuries to which they had been accustomed in Damascus, and the local inhabitants, admiring the Arabs, wanted to share as far as possible the external aspects of their life. Traders were coming from the East with manufactured goods, incense, spices and all the niceties giving a flavor for daily life. They were bringing back from Europe raw materials, slaves, iron and timber.

The sharing of material culture is observed also in techniques connected with shipbuilding and seafaring. The Arabs invented the lateen sail, despite its Western name, in the lateen caravel. The principle of the lateen sail was adopted by European shipbuilders and once developed made possible the construction of larger ships capable of crossing the Atlantic for the voyages of discovery. They also discovered the mariner’s compass, the portolans or nautical charts, etc… It was from the Arabs that Europeans gained a wider and more precise geographical knowledge. The Arab scholar Al Idrissi (1100-66) under the patronage of Roger II of Sicily, produced a complete description of the world as then known to the Muslims. He set out the fruits of his travels from Asia to England in a series of seventy maps accompanied by written description comprising what is known as “the book of Roger”. Up to the twelfth century, men still thought that the whole world, apart from Europe, belonged to the Muslims, to judge from the writing of William of Malmesbury.

  1. 2. Agriculture and Minerals

Arabs were having a prosperous agriculture in the lands where agriculture was possible. They certainly raised the level of agriculture in a country like Spain where they introduced ways of conserving and distributing water. Evidence for this is the large number of Spanish words pertaining to irrigation techniques which have been derived from Arabic, ex: acequia, irrigation ditch; alberca, articial pool; aljibe, cistern; noria, irrigating wheel or draw well; arcaduz, water conduit or bucket; azuda, Persian wheel; almatriche, canal; alcantarilla, bridge, sewer; atarjea, small drain; atanor, water pipe; alcorque, hollow round the base of a tree to hold water, etc… besides this evidence from language, the actual forms of wheels still used in Spain were invented in the Middle East where they are found today.

The Arabs introduced into Spain their crops: among others were the sugar-cane, rice, oranges, lemons, aubergines, artichokes, apricots and cotton. For all these even the English words came originally from Arabic.

The mineral wealth of Spain was fully exploited: Iron, Copper, cinnabar from which mercury was extracted, gold, precious and semi-precious stones were sought and collected.

 

  1. 3. The Arts of “Gracious Living”
  • Industry

This wide variety of materials from agriculture and mining was used by the Arabs of Spain to enhance the pleasure of life. There were various industries producing luxury goods. Among the products were gorgeous textiles in wool, linen and silk. The ceramic industry, the manufacturing of Crystal, the handicraft of fine metal, of jewellery, of carving ivory and wood, of leather work, book-biding, etc… were highly developed.

  • Architecture

The glorious buildings called “Moorish” constituted the framework of this life of luxury. The evidence of the Spanish language shows that the Arabs were responsible for many improvements and refinements in building techniques. The words for “architect” and “mason” are from Arabic, “alarife” and “albanil”. So also are the following; alcazar, castle; alcoba, bedroom; azulejo, tile; azotea , roof terrace; baldosa, fine paving tile; aldaba, door-knocker, etc…

  • Music

The Arabs invented or improved many types of instrument. The Arabic names of the lute, guitar, rebec and naker show their Arabic origin. The actual Arabic singing and playing was spread by the troubadours. The Morris dancers of England (or Moorish dancers) perform with a hobby-horse and bells and are reminiscent of the Arab minstrels:

  • Books

Familiarity with books was one part of “gracious living”. The use of paper made easier the possession of books. The Arabs developed the manufacturing of paper invented by the Chinese. Its use spread into Western Europe through Spain and Sicily.

  • Urban organization

The “gracious living” of the Arabs of Spain was essentially urban living and presupposes the existence of cities where law and order is preserved and people living together in peace. It is not surprising therefore to find in Spanish number of words of Arabic origin dealing with municipal administration and the control of commercial activity like, alcalde (mayor), alcaid (governor of a fortress), the zalmedina (magistrate), zoco or azoguejo (market) etc…

 

  1. IV. The spread of Islamic culture into Europe.

The Islamicisation of intellectual culture in Spain as early as the ninth century was described by Alvaro, a contemporary Cordovian bishop: “the Christians love to read the poems and romances of the Arabs: theologians and philosophers. Alas! All talented young Christians read and study with enthusiasm the Arab books; they gather immense libraries at great expense; they despise the Christian literature as unworthy of attention. They have forgotten their language. For everyone who can write a letter in Latin to a friend, there are a thousand who can express themselves in Arabic with elegance, and write better poems in this language than the Arabs themselves”. (R.W. Southern, p.21).

There have been many discussions of the relationship of Arabic and European elements in the sphere of poetry (Sir Hamilton Gibb, The Legacy of Islam), notably in respect of Provençal poetry and the troubadours (from the Arabic word mutrebeen). The popular poetry formed the connecting link between Spain and Provence, since singers moved between Muslim and Christian territories.

This refinement of life gradually spread northwards from Spain and Sicily. The experiences of the Crusaders in Islamic lands doubtless contributed something to the spread of Arab culture in Western Europe.

 

  1. V. Conclusion

The notion of “the miracle of Arabic science” circulated most unfortunately by Sarton, the Historian of medieval science, is false. The explanation of the “phenomenon” of the sudden birth of Islamic science lays down in the living Islamic ethos of those times; its dogmas and its gamut of culture; the all- pervading Islamic law which forged strong bonds of social co-operation among the Muslims, and between the Muslims and non-Muslims, citizens and resident aliens of the vast Islamic society of bewildering religious, ideological, national, racial and linguistic diversity. This Islamic ethos in action rekindled the dying embers of the pre-Quranic ancient sciences and world-wide civilization. The Muslims absorbed the best in the existing sciences and civilizations consistent with Islam and developed them, thanks to the intensely developed Islamic consciousness and conditioning, based on a remarkable Islamic system of education. There was great flexibility in horizontal and vertical mobility of people as nationalistic and hedonistic evils were held in check. Prerequisites for science and civilization were there: invention and innovation based on original thought; social mindedness and utilitarianism of individual efforts as well as in the organization of state and its educational and other programs; political stability, the rule of law and constitutionalism. All these mechanisms and conditions are necessary for the genesis, development, diffusion and application of science and technology. These mechanisms operate only in a cultural and political milieu of propitious dogmas, laws, values, cosmological doctrines, attitudes and efforts, all of which existed in the progressive period of medieval Islamic civilization.

I would like to emphasize the Islamic origins of modern science and civilization, and the ascendancy of Islamic science and learning in the world for more than 600 years (eighth to thirteenth centuries AD/second to seventh AH at least).

The West has generally maintained a conspiracy of silence regarding its medieval rejuvenation through Islamicization (the imitative-innovative assimilation of Islamic culture by non-Muslims – Islamization being the adoption of ideal Islamic culture and religion in the behavioral culture).

In more recent times a large number of Western scholars, together with Muslim scholars writing in Western languages, have been bringing out the diffusion of Islamic science, philosophy, and other aspects of Islamic culture in medieval West.

However, such researches have not been incorporated in the Western education system and culture, in the manner and to the extent necessary for fostering the proper appreciation of the ideal and historical patterns of Islamic culture. Therefore the West portends and strives for Westernization of the Muslim world because of what is considered to be the backwardness of contemporary Muslim behavioral culture pattern and the denyial of the existence and validity of ideal Islamic culture pattern. Therefore we can see the reactionary Muslim responses through polemics, xenophobia, historical romanticism, zealotism, fanaticism, extremism, even terrorism. Which are in fact a far cry from the creative adaptation indispensable for contemporary rejuvenation.

The consequences of the denial, falsification and neglect of this historical fact have been extremely serious: the denigration of Islam in the eyes of Muslims and non-Muslims; the identification of Islam and its culture with ignorance and backwardness and of “modernity” and progress with Western civilization; the creation of xenophobia and arrogance in Western mind, and the perpetration of ideological and politico- economic Western imperialism against Muslim people; the imposition of an inferiority complex among Western educated “modern” Muslims, and the bitter social and political cleavages between the “modern” and the “traditional” Muslim elites.

This fact of medieval Islamicization of the West needs to be fully researched, accepted and incorporated in specialized works and in the teaching materials of schools and colleges around the world. The consequences of this will be far reaching in understanding the socio-cultural rejuvenation and modernization of the developing nations, in building up a genuine and universally acceptable theory of social action, and in ridding sociology of ethnocentrism; in removing the burdens of historical romanticism and apologetics imposed upon the underdeveloped nations and suppressed minorities as a reaction to the cultural arrogance of nations and ethnic groups which are highly developed today but had their own dark ages at some other time and in promoting international understanding and co-operation for development and world peace.

 

References

[1]   Arnold, T., Guillaume, A, (ed) The Legacy of Islam, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1931.

[2]   Briffault, The Making of Humanity, London, 1928.

[3]   Eaton, Gai, Islam and the Destiny of Man, Kuala Lumpur, Islam Book Trust, 1994.

[4]   Hunke, Sigrid, Le Soleil d’Allah brille sur l’Occident, Abbin Michel, Paris, 1963.

[5]   Imamuddin, S.M, Some Aspect of the Socio-Economic And culture History of Muslim Spain, 711-1492, Leiden, E.J. Brill.

[6]   Montgomery Watt, The Influence of Islam Medieval Europe, Edinburg, Univ, press, 1972.

[7]   Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, Science And Civilization In Islam, ABC International group, inc, Chicago, 2001.

[8]   Sarton, G., Introduction to History of science, Baltimore, the Williams and Wilkingsco, 1927-28, 3 vols.

[9]   Sharif, M.M.(ed), A History Of Muslim Philosophy, Wiesbaden, Otto Harrass Ovitz, 1966, 2 vols.

[10] Southern, R.W, Western Views of Islam In The Middle Ages, Cambridge, Mass.1962.

[11] Abstracta Islamica (classified list of books and articles on Islamic Subjects).

[12] Index Islamicus, (supplement to the Revue des Etudes Islamiques).

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ABC Report – Phantom Debt Collectors From India Harass Americans, Demand Money


 Hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped Americans have been targeted by abusive debt collectors operating out of overseas call centers suspected of links to organized crime in India, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The calls are part of a massive scam, one that appears to target struggling Americans — especially those who have gone online to apply for payday loans. Armed with personal information from those pilfered applications, the threatening callers, who claim to be debt collectors poised to initiate legal action, have managed to pry loose millions of dollars from their victims — even when the victims never owed money in the first place.

“This is what we call a phantom debt collection scam,” said Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. “It’s a very pernicious and innovative new fraud.”

“I got threatened by these guys, and I only filled out an application for a loan I never accepted one. My email is still flooded with offers to an upwards of $2000 in loans, but I was just curious at the time what was available to me when I filled out the app online. They sounded innocent enough at first they left me a voicemail saying I needed to contact them right away because it was an emergency. When I called they said I am under investigation and they want to speak to my lawyer.”-DUCKWORTH,USA

WATCH “Nightline” and “World News” tonight for more on “phantom” debt collectors.

Working through call centers in India

Working through call centers in India, the commission estimates that the criminals have dialed at least 2.5 million calls, persuading already cash-strapped victims to send them more than $5 million. Some have reported receiving dozens of calls per hour. They are victims like Cindy Gervais, of New Orleans, who went online for a quick loan when her husband’s car was hit by a driver who didn’t have insurance.

Even though she paid the loan off, the so-called “phantom” debt collectors with Indian accents began calling to say she still owed money.

“He more or less told me that if I didn’t pay, they were going to have someone on my doorstep to arrest me,” she told ABC News. “And that they were going to contact my place of business, and tell them what kind of person I am.”

At first, she said she resisted. Then the calls became more frequent, and started to ring on her cell phone, and at the grocery distribution company where she had worked for 27 years.

“I was more or less was in panic mode because he told me there would be someone before noon at my place of business to arrest me and take me to jail,” she said tearfully. “So I agreed to pay him.”

After receiving scores of complaints, investigators with the FTC said they began tracking the calls, and following the payments. They alleged the payments led them to a California company run by an Indian-American named Kirit Patel, and that such scams would not be possible without American front men.

“I would say that all roads of this scam, or many of the roads of this scam, lead back to Mr. Patel,” said the FTC’s Leibowitz.

ABC News tracked Patel for weeks, from the suburbs of San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

Patel refused to talk. But his lawyer, Mark Ellis, said he believes it is far too early to pass judgment on his client. Ellis, a Sacramento-based attorney, told ABC News that Patel was hired for a nominal fee to set up an American shell company, and had no idea what the call centers in India were doing.

“I can tell you, he was as snookered by the people in India as anybody,” Ellis said. “He’s a 69-year-old man who is nearing his retirement who thought all he had to do was set up some corporations and everything was on the up and up. He’s completely dismayed that he has become the lightning rod of this entire problem.”

A close friend of Patel’s also defended him in a brief interview at his home, saying Patel was not trying to defraud anyone — he was just an unwitting, bit player in a larger scheme.

“If Mr. Patel was just a cog in the wheel he seems to have been a pretty big cog,” Leibowitz said. “It is clear that Patel was integrally involved with this scam.”

Leibowitz points to thousands of pages of financial and phone records gathered by the FTC and filed as part of a civil case brought against him in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento last month. When FTC lawyers sought to freeze his assets and prevent his business from continuing to operate, Patel responded by invoking his rights against self-incrimination. His lawyer told ABC News he has had to be careful in how he responds to the allegations in civil court “because there is a potential criminal action,” but that Patel maintains the allegations against him are false.

Federal investigators said the phantom debt collection operation that allegedly benefitted from Patel’s assistance was one of several that all trace back to the same small town in Western India called Ahmedabad. Callers use technology to make it appear that the calls originate inside the U.S. Victims provided ABC News with recordings of dozens of the calls, and many of the thickly accented callers appear to be reading off a script.

“Subpoenas have been readied, and Monday morning you’re going to be picked up from your home,” one caller says on a victim’s voicemail. “And you have children. Don’t worry about your children. We have a childcare department to take care of the children.”

“You will be behind bars for six months,” said another caller. “And once you go behind bars, you will lose your job. Once you are behind the bars, you won’t get a single drop of water.”

William Peerce Howard, a Tampa attorney who represents victims of harassment from debt collectors, said it takes an especially twisted criminal to use threats and coercion to pry money from someone who is already struggling financially

“These guys really are the most visible villains in America today,” he said. “They make a living scaring people.”

Mark Merola, of Florida, said he just panicked when the caller told him he might be arrested at the deli where he works in a Florida retirement community.

“I was nervous. I didn’t want to embarrass myself, my family,” he said. He used his debit card to pay the collector $576.

Afterwards, he says he realized “how stupid I was.”

“It just happened so fast,” he said. “I got scared.”

Leibowitz said he hopes with more attention, future potential targets of the scam will recognize red flags before they turn over any money.

If callers say they are from the police, consumers should know that law enforcement officers do not collect debt for private parties. If the caller is speaking with a thick Indian accent, but calls themselves by a names such as Officer Mike Johnson, that should be a tip off. And if they’re calling 40 times in two hours, that’s another red flag. “Legitimate debt collectors, legitimate pay day lenders don’t do those sorts of things,” he said.

Merola said he would like to see anyone involved in the scam prosecuted aggressively.

“There’s no place in society for these people,” he said.

For tips on how to avoid being scammed by a phantom debt collector, CLICK HERE to go to the Federal Trade Commission’s website.


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HOW INDIA DESTROYED US ECONOMY: How Indian IT Industry and H1B Visa Workers Take American Jobs and Scam US Industry & Government

 

This is just the second shot of the opening salvo. There will be more. I have worked these last ten years cleaning up the messes that the H-1B’s make. The Government here is starting to realize that the best and the brightest do not come from the third world. Logic dictates that new innovations do not come from a countries home populace that has just recently been introduced to indoor plumbing. We walked on the moon over forty years ago. You come here as Scab labor working for half or less the wage. fortunately you also screw almost everything you touch. They have tried for many years to get innovations from you and have only received non working programs and devices. The marketing people only see the bottom line. They do not understand that there is a difference between good engineering and bad engineering. They see a degree and figure this person is an engineer. Those of us that have tried to acclimate you to innovation know different. Some companies have paid by going out of business. Others are back tracking trying to figure a way to save their company from the mistake of hiring substandard foreign workers. For those of you who sya that we cannot compete please read up on what happens to scab labor when they are removed. It is not pretty. Americans have been dealing with labor disputes for well over 100 years. Corp[orations have done this in the past and have paid dearly. In the end they always hand the scabs (technical term for cheap labor used in wage disputes) over to the repatriated American workers as a blood sacrifice as it were. Do you really think it will be different now.

Do you really think that you or us or anyone can compete with less then a dollar an hour wage like what is paid in China. Do you really think that you who just recently learned what the use of toilet paper was for can compete with real American innovators. By the time we get to the fifth or sixth stage of clearing this mess up you will be begging to go home and the few companies left standing will fight for the best American workers that are still out there. Get real swami. You cannot compete with real American engineers. We invented the phone, the car, the everything you use that uses electricity. What have you ever invented. Like I aid, read up on American history to see how this ends for you. It won’t be pretty.

You want truth here is some truth for you. The British tried to drag you into the twentieth century and failed. You did not invent calculas the Creeks did. You invented the sex. You must have as there are so many of you. Walk down any modern street in India and you will happen up[on a dead body just laying there. they come and night and pick them up. You did not invent the USB we did. I worked on that project in Chandler AZ in 1995. I was awarded a solid silver cup for my work on that project. That Indian guy was in the Bay area and was the project staffing manager. he was nearly fired for sending the layout to Malaysia. It came back all messed up and we worked 18 hour shifts fixing it. You guys break everything you touch. If you do on the rare occasion innovate something it is done here under our supervision. Not in India. For Gods sake man you people still use your finger to wipe your butts even when we provide you with toilet paper. But even with the starvation wages we pay you in India you can still not do a simple job like answer the phone. So now we are shipping the work to the Philippians. As for the people that we have coming here the best and the brightest. I was told one time by my boss to acclimate one of you and I told him after that experience never to ask me to do that again. I mean to take you to a grocery store and show you what deodorant is used for. What toilet paper is used for. and to walk by the meat counter and watch you faint dead away because you have never sen meat before. To explain that you have to bath every day. And then on the job we have to explain the simplest most basic principles of circuit design. High school stuff. But the top brass wants to save money so we do what we can to get you up to speed. What it more often turns out to be is us putting you in the corner with some fake work to keep you out of our hair while we work twice as hard because now we have lost our knowledgeable colleges. If you are so great then why don’t you go home. You invented technology. get real man wake up. you are living in a dream world. American corporations wants slaves. plain and simple. They get manufacturing workers in china for between 4 cents and up to 89 cents an hour for the ones who have masters degrees. Their engineers like you can remember formula. But, that is not engineering. If you could solve problems then you’d have indoor plumbing instead of coming here and getting all wild eyed when you walk into a bathroom. You will never catch up to the modern world. The medicine you practice is what was developed in the west. Or are you going to say that you invented SEM’s and CAT scanner, and MRI’s and the microchip. And whatever else there is in the modern world. Now, go and pray to whatever multi-headed elephant God you want for salvation. And, like always we have to explain everything twice to you and yet you still don’t get it. When the corporations are done with you they will make sure that you are returned to the slums they found you in. Once again go read up on American labor disputes and see what happens top the scabs. This has been going on here for a very long time. The 40 hour work week, the paid time off, the health insurance everything working benefit that you enjoy in this country was paid for in blood by the miners like the ones who just recently perished. Read up on what they did to the scabs once the strikes and such were done. When the back lash truly starts you won’t have time to leave the country. You will find yourself in the belly of the beast. You are a fool. You live the life of a fool and you will like all fools die a fools death. probably trying to cross the street. Or maybe by sticking your head in a microwave oven to see how it works while it’s running. Will you just go back to that rat infested S*%hole,called India you came from and we will send you some GM rice.

You want truth here is some truth for you. The British tried to drag you into the twentieth century and failed. You did not invent calculas the Creeks did. You invented the sex. You must have as there are so many of you. Walk down any modern street in India and you will happen up[on a dead body just laying there. they come and night and pick them up. You did not invent the USB we did. I worked on that project in Chandler AZ in 1995. I was awarded a solid silver cup for my work on that project. That Indian guy was in the Bay area and was the project staffing manager. he was nearly fired for sending the layout to Malaysia. It came back all messed up and we worked 18 hour shifts fixing it. You guys break everything you touch. If you do on the rare occasion innovate something it is done here under our supervision. Not in India. For Gods sake man you people still use your finger to wipe your butts even when we provide you with toilet paper. But even with the starvation wages we pay you in India you can still not do a simple job like answer the phone. So now we are shipping the work to the Philippians. As for the people that we have coming here the best and the brightest. I was told one time by my boss to acclimate one of you and I told him after that experience never to ask me to do that again. I mean to take you to a grocery store and show you what deodorant is used for. What toilet paper is used for. and to walk by the meat counter and watch you faint dead away because you have never sen meat before. To explain that you have to bath every day. And then on the job we have to explain the simplest most basic principles of circuit design. High school stuff. But the top brass wants to save money so we do what we can to get you up to speed. What it more often turns out to be is us putting you in the corner with some fake work to keep you out of our hair while we work twice as hard because now we have lost our knowledgeable colleges. If you are so great then why don’t you go home. You invented technology. get real man wake up. you are living in a dream world. American corporations wants slaves. plain and simple. They get manufacturing workers in china for between 4 cents and up to 89 cents an hour for the ones who have masters degrees. Their engineers like you can remember formula. But, that is not engineering. If you could solve problems then you’d have indoor plumbing instead of coming here and getting all wild eyed when you walk into a bathroom. You will never catch up to the modern world. The medicine you practice is what was developed in the west. Or are you going to say that you invented SEM’s and CAT scanner, and MRI’s and the microchip. And whatever else there is in the modern world. Now, go and pray to whatever multi-headed elephant God you want for salvation. And, like always we have to explain everything twice to you and yet you still don’t get it. When the corporations are done with you they will make sure that you are returned to the slums they found you in. Once again go read up on American labor disputes and see what happens top the scabs. This has been going on here for a very long time. The 40 hour work week, the paid time off, the health insurance everything working benefit that you enjoy in this country was paid for in blood by the miners like the ones who just recently perished. Read up on what they did to the scabs once the strikes and such were done. When the back lash truly starts you won’t have time to leave the country. You will find yourself in the belly of the beast. You are a fool. You live the life of a fool and you will like all fools die a fools death. probably trying to cross the street. Or maybe by sticking your head in a microwave oven to see how it works while it’s running. Will you just go back to that rat infested S*%hole your came from and we will send you some GM rice.

Another US IT person:

Those who complain about the USCIS enforcement of current USA laws have something to hide. You break the law, you face the consequences. Sorry I didn’t get any break when H-1B stole my job. Now H-1B wannabes get to experience US corporate greed first hand. Doesn’t feel good, does it.. Maybe you will be more empathetic to the people you replaced.

Despite popular H-1B belief, you, exclusively, are not the masters of the universe. Thanks to corporate greed and political corruption,the people you replaced, hardworking, qualified and educated Americans have lost our jobs, homes, life savings, and healthcare as a direct result of the corrupt H-1B temporary work visa program.

Think again if you think you can get away with one of the H-1B visas that bend the rules.I suspect lots of laid off US workers like me are only too happy to help the USCIS enforce the law.

Mike Greg says:

“The changes are for protecting US jobs as many IT companies are misusing them. The body shoppers WIPRO, SATYAM MAHINDRA, TCS, INFOSYS should all be in line next after the small body shoppers are stopped. These big companies grew overnight by outsourcing US Jobs. They do not create new jobs but just OUTSOURCE”

    • ram parivar says:

      Sad thing to write on India’s Republic day!

      Because of the consultants and their malpractices there is such a bad name for Indian community in US of A. Even big companies such as TCS, Infosys etc. get H1 VISA approved for their employees awaiting projects in US. This is atrocious, when there are many people in US waiting to change from one VISA to another, how can these big companies consume all the VISA numbers for a non-existing employment. I would suggest USCIS to initiate a strict rule saying that any H1B VISA applicant should have landed in US and be in US pay roll within 1-2 months of approval of H1B VISA or else he/she cannot come to US in H1B at all.

      Another issue is the consultants, in NJ/NY and Bay area may be all over US there are 1000s of consultants doing this fraudulent VISA practice. These guys are from mainly one particular state in INDIA. I do not want to name that. One guy will come to US and then bring the whole village within one year through a consultant company (may be his brother-in law’s distant cousin – they have such a wonderful networking capability – only human networking). He gets paid for bringing people. Now this is SAD state of affairs. If anyone wants genuinely come here with all proper documents, the VISA officer and the people at POE look at you suspiciously!

      Very bad!

      SM

      Amol says:

      I hate this IT culture in India. HCL/TCS/WIPRO/INFY are sophisticated pimps where as there desi counterparts in US are street hustlers.Both thrive by selling body of poor consultants. This culture has altered our thinking process and made us cheap servants of western masters who dole out H1B visas and we like dogs runs for crumbs.

      Look at China who has grown strong by creating robust manufacturing jaggernaut which no IT company can match.They are producing goods and thus makin chinese people self reliant.Do Indian IT companies have guts to make software product and sell it world over or would they keep on living like parasites and dutiful servants.

      I wish to see a day when Indians stop complaining about H1B policies of their masters who throw crumbs at them.

      sreekanth says:

      Well, see the facts man. If you look at numbers- there are only 1000 H1B visas filed by top INdian consulting companies. like Infosys, Microsoft etc…rest thousands (100,000) of H1Bs are being filed by these fraud Indian consulting (Body-shoppers) who will anything to make money. Let people fake resumes, layers, lies…these are FACTS.

      If you look at H1B worker- isn’t he supposed to have job before he lands here- isn’t he supposed to make money from day 1…I do not know how strictly the USCIS can enforce this memorandum..I am sure at the begining everything may look like mess- but if they can hold on to those rules for couple of years- everything will be streamed out. It is good for immigrants, good for Job market..it would fair game..smooth and clean. Poor Americans are having hard time undestading how this market is working- Fact is- it is just the fraud game. I lie that I know some technology- i get on board I will have somebody who has knowledge on phone…keep working…if i can fairwell..who cares..they will fire…just find an another job…as easy as it is…At most your contract gets terminated what do you have to loose….atleast you got free training in the real time environment. You will do better …keep trying…until you become knowledgble……:)..That is what is going on 90% of the cases.

      Reference: http://www.happyschoolsblog.com/neufeld-memo-h1b-workers-deported-to-india/

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