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http://www.middleeastwire.com/commentary/stories/20011004_meno.shtml
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How The Arab Civilization Has Changed Your Life
Middle East News Online
By Sherri Muzher, for Middle East News Online
Posted Thursday October 4, 2001 - 10:54:46 AM EDT
These have been tough times, and our media deserves kudos in recent
weeks for bringing Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans forward to
humanize there respective communities, and to demonstrate that they
are not the same as the alleged terrorists.
And while Arab-Americans are being singled out in this fight against
terror, it might be interesting for people to note that the
overwhelming majority of Arab-Americans are law-abiding and
concentrate on achieving the 'American Dream.' People might even be
surprised to learn that there are Arabs and Arab-Americans among
their heroes. For the sports fan, there's NBA star Rony Seikaly and
NFL star Doug Flutie.
If you like comedy, you may be familiar with the late Danny Thomas,
Jamie Farr, and Tony Shalhoub. Maybe you like drama. . .there's Salma
Hayek and Omar Sharif. Maybe you're into politics, and so you might
be familiar with Republican John Sununu, Green Party founder Ralph
Nader, and Democrat Nick Rahall - related to race car driver, Bobby
Rahall. Do you like Latin pop? There's Shakira.
When you write a check or count your dollars, you are using Arabic
numerals. Are you putting away money so that your kids can go to a
university when they grow up? The Arabs founded great universities,
in particular the ones at Cairo, Bagdad, and Cordova. These schools
preserved and taught Greco-Roman culture. Classical learning provided
a foundation for further advances by Arab scholars, who were
permitted to write with considerable freedom. History tends to jump
from the Greco-Roman period and right into the Renaissance period.
The period between them is known as the Dark Ages. But if these were
Dark Ages, the Arabs were wearing sunglasses. It was during the so-
called Dark Ages that Arabs made great contributions to science and
mathematics.
They furthered the studies of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.
They prepared chemical compounds such as sulfuric acid and alcohol;
improved metal refining and cloth dying; and gained new knowledge
about the relationship between light and vision. In terms of
medicine, they used anesthetics; performed difficult surgery,
particularly progressing in eye operations; and compiled medical
textbooks.
The famous scientist-philosopher known in Europe as Avicenna was Ibn
Sina, an Arab. He was the greatest writer of medicine in the Middle
Ages, and his Canon was required reading throughout Europe until the
seventeenth century. Have you been seeing a counselor or therapist?
Avicenna did pioneer work in mental health, and was a forerunner of
today's psychotherapists. He believed that some illnesses were
psychosomatic, and he sometimes led patients back to a recollection
of an incident buried in the subconscious in order to explain the
present ailment.
Did you grow up on a farm? The Arabs improved farming by methods by
rotating crops and using fertilizer. The next time you celebrate with
a glass of wine, consider this: Arabs were able to graft a single
vine so that it would bear grapes in different colors, and their
vineyards were responsible for the future of wine industries of
Europe. From India, they introduced the cultivation of sugar, and
from Egypt they brought cotton to European markets. Peach, apricot,
and loquat trees were transplanted in southern Europe by Arab
soldiers. The hardy olive was encouraged to grow in the sandy soil of
Greece, Spain, and Sicily.
There was a time that people around the world thought the earth was
flat. The Arabs believed the earth was round and it's been said that
Christopher Columbus's navigator was Arab. The Arabs used the
Mariner's compass to determine direction at sea.
The Arab World gave the world its third monotheistic religion --
Islam, which means "submission." This peaceful religion, considered
to be the fastest growing in modern times, was spread to lands more
distant than North Africa and the Fertile Crescent, but it was in
this area that a common Arab culture emerged. Being Arab means that
one speaks Arabic and shares a world of common traditions, customs
and values. The US is a melting pot of different ethnicities and
religions, and so, too, is the Arab civilization, which brought
together Muslims, Christians and Jews. It unified Arabians, Africans,
Berbers, Egyptians, and the descendants of the Phoenicians (modern
day Lebanese), Canaanites (modern day Palestinians), and many other
peoples.
>From tanning leather to the famous British bagpipes to literature to
philosophers who worked closely with Plato and Aristotle, the Arabs
have contributed in many ways to modern civilization. For so many
unfortunate years, our fellow Americans have been subjected to
stereotypes and misinformation about the Arab community, probably
never realizing the true impact of Arab civilization in everyday
life.
© 2001 Middle East News Online. This news item is distributed via
Middle East News Online (MiddleEastWire.com).
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