The Dark Side of Islam’s Golden Age How Islam’s Apologists Exploit the Association Fallacy By Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim : The association fallacy—where X is present, so too must Y—has done much to rehabilitate Islam’s image.

One need only turn to Jacob William Rees-Mogg, who recently defended Islam, for a perfect example of how this fallacy works.

As we have already shown, his “defense” often relied on “lies by omission.” He suggested, for example, that Sultan Mehmet’s brutal sack of Constantinople in 1453 was nothing like the crusader sack of 1204—being apparently instead driven by a “benevolent” concern to preserve “scholarship and philosophy.”

As Mogg continued it became clear that presenting Islam’s past as much more advanced than Europe’s was his ultimate point. Thus he cited several Muslim polymaths, including al-Khwarizmi (780 – 850), who produced Arabic-language works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography; and Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406) an Arab historian, philosopher, and sociologist.

Mogg’s implicit point is this: how can a civilization, in this case, Islam, be at the cutting edge of science, philosophy, medicine, even architecture—and yet be accused of being inherently backwards, barbaric, and/or radical? Clearly all the radicalization we see today—including ISIS and other terrorist groups—are aberrations, unfortunate byproducts of historical forces and evolving circumstances (poverty, ignorance, grievances, colonialism, territorial disputes, etc.). Clearly Islam itself is innocent, seeing how enlightened it was during its heyday.

Even if one were to accept the claim that Islam was historically more advanced than the West (which will be addressed another time), note the unspoken assumption: the more advanced a civilization is, the more progressive, enlightened, tolerant, and peaceful it must be. Where X exists (say, science and scholarship), so too must Y (peace, tolerance, and coexistence).

This is a fallacy: civilizations can be scientifically and technologically advanced; they can produce and appreciate literature and scholarship—and yet they can still be intolerant, cruel, violent, and supremacist.

There is no contradiction here: the presence of the one (science, etc.) does not necessitate the presence of the other (tolerance, etc.).

One need only look to Islam’s paradigmatic example of Córdoba to prove this. During its tenth century “golden age” zenith, it became one of Europe’s wealthiest and most sophisticated cities. Córdoba possessed a manuscript culture, impressive waterworks, public baths, monumental architecture, and important traditions of medicine, astronomy, and mathematics.

The surgeon al-Zahrawi produced an influential illustrated encyclopedia of surgical procedures and instruments, while al-Hakam assembled a celebrated royal library and employed scholars, translators, copyists, and book collectors.