[Starve The Beast]

Actually, Islam has been a civilizing influence during a lot of its early history. But that was then. Right now it's a problem the rest of the world really should deal with.

[Prokopton]

Was this sarcasm or do you really have some evidence of islam's "civilizing influence"?

[Cheburashka]

Actually, Islam has been a civilizing influence during a lot of its early history. But that was then. Right now it's a problem the rest of the world really should deal with.
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Actually, Egypt, the Fertile Crescent, Persia, North Africa, Anatolia were all civilized before the onslaught of Islam. And I will note that all of Europe outside the Eastern Roman Empire had fallen into barbarism at that time.
But my take on Islam in these countries is that it has slowly sucked the life, the civilization out of them. Somehow the barbarous West civilized itself, and in fact blew the doors off Islam as it surpassed it, while the Middle East went backwards.

[RightOnline]

"Actually, Islam has been a civilizing influence during a lot of its early history."

Let's just say that your idea of "a civilizing influence" and mine are vastly different.

[Beckwith]

Actually, Islam has been a civilizing influence during a lot of its early history.

Ishaq:208 (c: 630)

“When Allah gave permission to his Apostle to fight, the second Aqaba contained conditions involving war which were not in the first act of submission."

"Now we bound themselves to war against all mankind for Allah and His Apostle. He promised us a reward in Paradise for faithful service. We pledged ourselves to war in complete obedience to Muhammad no matter how evil the circumstances.”

Beginning almost immediately upon the death of Mohammed in 632 AD, Arab armies begin their march on a jihad to conquer and convert the known world. It’s important to note that the mission has not changed in 15 centuries. The goal of Islam is still to conquer and convert the entire world.

Murdering those that won't convert to Islam does have a certain "civilizing influence."

For example, the Muslim conquest of India was probably the bloodiest story in history. Between 1000 AD and 1500 AD, the Muslims murdered and killed 80 million Hindus.

The year 1000 saw the total annihilation of the Hindu population. The region is still called the Hindu Kush, which means, “the slaughter of Hindus.” In 1399, Teimur killed 100,000 Hindus in a single day and and many more on other occasions.