Even so, the fall of Baghdad did not mark the end of Islamic civilization. Afterwards, masterpieces of literature and art were created, as well as architecture, from the Alhambra palace in Granada (13th century) to the Taj Mahal in India (17th century).
In the 1982 movie, "Laurence of Arabia," Prince Faisal (brilliantly portrayed by Alec Guiness) reminds Laurence (Peter O'Toole):
No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees. There's nothing in the desert. No man needs nothing...Or is it that you think we are a something that you can play with. Because we are a little people. A silly people. Greedy, barbarous and cruel.
In the Arab city or Cordoba there were two miles of public lighting in the streets when London was a village... Nine centuries ago... I long for the vanished gardens of Cordoba.
Islamic culture has left an enduring legacy throughout the world. We would do well to acknowledge and admire it.
Very well, but we still have an ongoing struggle with "radical Islam" -- ISIS and Al Qaeda. How might we best deal with these savage fanatics? Above all, we do so by separating the fanatics from the vast majority of Moslems who denounce the radicals who are besmirching their religion and culture. This should not be difficult if we recognize, as the islamaphobes apparently have not, that most of the victims of radical Islam have been Moslems.
The primary objective of ISIS and Al Qaeda is to unite all Moslems in a "clash of civilizations" against the infidel West, and the United States in particular. The 9/11 attacks and the current atrocities are all directed toward this end. Implicit in this "clash" is an insistence that "Islamic civilization" is an undifferentiated monolithic whole.
Tragically, the islamaphobes have bought it. The aforementioned atheists (Harris, Dawkins, Hitchens, Maher, etc.), along with evangelical Christians, and opportunistic demagogues such as Donald Trump, have, by treating Islam as a unified and malignant dogma, become unwitting allies of the radical Islamists. Consider, for example, Trump's proposal to exclude "all Moslems" from entering the United States.
This undifferentiated attack on all Moslems threatens to exclude from the battle against ISIS and Al Qaeda, the most steadfast allies, namely moderate, "ethnic" and even "secular" Moslems. A "war" against a fifth of humanity is a "war" that the West cannot win.
Finally, the islamaphobes relentless attack on the Islamic religion ignores a compelling lesson of history: religion thrives on persecution and martyrdom. Caligula and Nero couldn't defeat Christianity. Seventy years of "official state atheism" in the Soviet Union did not eliminate Russian Orthodoxy. When, in 1844, the mobs in Illinois murdered the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, and drove the Mormons from their homes and across the Mississippi River into the wilderness, the Mormons, including my ancestors, walked across the great plains and over the Rocky Mountains and established their "Zion," which continues to thrive to this day.
Clearly, the islamaphobes will not destroy Islam by condemning an entire religion and tradition due to the behavior of a few fanatics. It is far more likely that they will motivate the "indifferent" (ethnic and secular) Moslems to defend their traditions. If so, the we will lose the support of invaluable allies in the fight against the radicals.
And what about that religion, Islam? We should treat it with tolerance and respect, acknowledging its contributions to world civilization. As a wise man once observed, the best way to kill a religion is to feed it to death. If, as I believe, all dogmatic religions reside on foundations of myths and ignorance, the best antidote is critical thinking and confirmed knowledge. No modern industrialized nation can flourish without a practical acceptance of science. Technology, as applied science, requires that acceptance. And the methodology and attitude of science -- what Jacob Bronowski called "the habit of truth" -- promotes secularism and erodes religious dogma.
Promote scientific education and critical thinking, and time, along with tolerance and patience, will accomplish what the bluster of the islamaphobes cannot. The Abrahamic religions -- Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- will persist, but as "traditions" more than dogmas. In fact, we have seen this erosion at work ever since modern science arose during the Renaissance. It is noteworthy that the most secular countries in Europe, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, all have "official state churches" which, like their monarchies, are empty traditions. Perhaps, with the long passage of time, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad will be regarded as "real" and as relevant as King Arthur, Zeus and Wotan.
Of course this eventual transition from dogma to myth and folklore is not guaranteed. The fall of Rome was succeeded by the Dark Ages, and Islamic science never recovered the excellence that it achieved in tenth century Baghdad. There is no assurance that Christian fundamentalism, which has apparently captured the Republican Party in the United States, will not replace evolution with creationism, historical geology with Genesis, and Constitutional Law with Exodus, Deuteronomy and Numbers. If science and secularism are to prevail, they must be steadfastly defended. In this struggle, education is the most effective weapon.
Summing up: Islamaphobia is wrong, because:
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