Sure, ideas are welcomed too. If you would like me to address something in particular, don't hesitate to share some thoughts
really ... !!! That is sweet
Speaking of suggestions, a good idea would be to mention Professor Gouguenheim.
Who?
Sylvain Gouguenheim, Professor from the École Normale Supérieure of Lyon, who wrote a book called "Aristote au Mont Saint-Michel. Les racines grecques de l’Europe chrétienne" book published in Romanian at the Nemira publishing house see my book review
http://nemirabooks.ro/aristotel-la-muntele-saint-michel-2There is nothing special about this book, in reality is based on an old argument, ie the Byzantine thesis ( on, transmission of Greek philosophy via Byzantine empire, starting with James of Venice (12th century) and ap to the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204), when some barbarians from the West who called themselves "Christians" sacked the "queen city", and ending with the fall of Constantinople, and the massive migration of Byzantine scholars to Italy particularly Florence, that spark the Renaissance).
However gradually, in the last 20 years a new thesis appeared a Islamic thesis, trying to convince that Europe spent 1000 years in the dark ( No Byzantium, no monasteries whit scribes, no universities, no nothing but darkness and barbarism) until "knowledge were brought back from Islam". ( through Cordoba or Cairo )
This thesis is strongly supported and promoted by Atheists and Socialist, often with the following idea attached " if we should thank someone,then we should thank Islam ,,, but ... if we should think better, Islam itself has fallen into barbarism ...so we should thank nobody. Religion has brought only wars, end of discussion.
In the current context, of the migration of Muslims in to Europe and U.S.,the idea of the huge debt which Europe has to "Islam" seems to be the solution to all conflicts.
According to this thesis, of "political correctness", the History should be written so as to do not contradict, theses that put Islam in a positive light.
In this regard a recommendation of the "parliamentary assembly of the council of Europe from 8 novembre 2002 / Doc. 9626, proposed a revision of history textbooks, so that the contribution of other cultures as Islam to European civilization also be mentioned.
This document speaks, of a a previous report of the parliamentary assembly of the council of Europe from 13 September 1991 namely the Doc. 649, "on the contribution of the Islamic civilisationto European culture"
"
therefore it is suggested for example:
ii. There should be wider provision for the
teaching of Arabic as a modern language in European schools.
iii. Scientific research on Islamic matters
should be encouraged, inter alia, by increasing the
number of Arabic and Islamic professorial posts in
universities. Islam should also be included in
mainstream studies, for example Islamic history
should be taught in history departments, Islamic
philosophy in philosophy departments and Islamic
law in law departments, and should not be relegated, as is often the case, to oriental language
departments."
Basically while the secularists lead a fight for, years now, to remove all Christian symbols from schools and universities, some of these secularists, also start a fight to push the study of Islam and of the "Islamic history, Islamic philosophy and Islamic law", in the same schools from which the Christian symbols were freshly removed.
And atheists were the first who started to scream, "
we do not, oouu we do not owe Christianity nothing"
Sylvain Gouguenheim, motivated, as the main reason for which he has decided to publish this book is precisely the EU recommendations, that first of all suggested discussion about Islam.
So far nothing new, just ... another historian, presenting, in France a classic thesis, namely of the transmission of Greek culture via the Byzantine Empire
What followed is truly amazing:
The author is accused, firstly that he did not bring anything new with his book. After that is violently criticized by socialist circles, declared racist, xenophobic, Islamophobes. even called a liar
Against him petitions were gathered, and two conferences were held, in order to publicly ostracize him, and after protests, he end up being excluded from the function which he occupies in a commission, function that gave him the right to coordinate doctoral theses.
According to an interview given by the author to a newspaper in Romania he even received personal threats.
He even came to be called Nazi, fascist, or a right-wing political agitator. In various articles, in which he was attacked, he was accused primarily that he wants to deny any influence of Islam on Europe, when the author says, very clear in his book, he does not want to do that. Or that he did not presented thoroughly the influence of Islam on the mathematical sciences, even if his book is about Greek philosophy.
So ... In a presentation about Islam I think that the new-atheists should be severely criticized because they had systematically, promoted the idea of the huge debts that Europe has before Islam, denied or concealed the entire history of Eastern Christianity (which do not enroll in their Inquisition patterns ) which was the source of Greek culture for Islam and Catholicism simultaneously
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIszhU_em1EPs. The above, is inspired by a small portion of the article that I mentioned, when I joined this forum.
After I will have enough time to fully check it again, for any mistakes ( I will post a link) so we may discusses this here.
Topic: Cristina Rad (zomgitscriss) speech on Islam at AAC