[WOSG]

The Byzantines and the Muslims got along fairly well. (1000AD) Er, the Muslims had carved out most of the Byzantine Empire by then and destroyed their dominance... It's like saying we get along well with Canada. :-) ...

The Arabs started becoming more intolerant of Christians around this time (1000AD), which raised hackles in Europe and helped kick of the Crusades wanting access tot eh 'holy land' for pilgrimages ... which if you do the James Burke imitation of how every innovation is connected to another, could be said to lead to our modern age of science, our building of WTC, jumbo jets and thus 9/11. That is, Islamic Arab intolerance was both the immediate and distant cause of 9/11.

[RightWhale]

Muslims had carved out most of the Byzantine Empire by then and destroyed their dominance

That would have been Turks, who adopted Islam just as the Normans adopted Christianity, by deliberate, conscious, voluntary action.

[crystalk]

While it was true, more before 1200 than 1600, that the Islamic world had a lot of thinking going on in it, IT WAS NOT THE MUSLIMS WHO WERE DOING IT! It just so happened they had not yet murdered all the Christians, Hindus, and others capable of thought.

If they had followed Muhammad and murdered all of them up front, then, voila, no flowering of anything under Islam!

Islam rots, you heard it here first.