Islamic Revolution Will Return Us to the Dark Ages? No, the Dark Ages was a Singularly Christian Period of History

There has been a lot of mention made recently about how Islam is a religion of the dark ages, treating women as inferior and wanting to roll back justice to a simpler form. Frankly, this flummoxes me. Well, not really, since most people making these claims are about as uninformed about Islam as the leaders of our government. I don’t claim to be an expert on the Islamic religion, and I’m certainly not excusing the fundamentalist extremism of the religion, but let’s not forget that killing in the name of God didn’t start with Muslims.

As for an Islamic takeover returning the world to the dark ages, well, the plain truth of the matter is that the dark ages were a wholly and uniquely Christian age. The attempt to stifle knowledge and shroud people in ignorance during the Middle Ages were located entirely within the Christian-dominate European countries. There was no correlative dark ages in the Orient during this time, nor is there any indication of a similar period at any time in the areas soon to be “discovered” by Europeans and renamed the New World.

Let’s take a look at the differences between the Christianized nations of Europe and the Islamic culture during the dark ages which so many people are afraid Muslims will return to the world to. Muslim sailors began using the triangular lateen sail while Europeans were still using the traditional square sail. The triangular sails provided for faster sailing by virtue of better control of the wind. Just as the Europeans would adopt the triangular sail from Muslims, they would also eventually begin using Muslim maps since these were far more accurate than the maps being made by European cartographers. You want an idea of just how much better the Muslim maps were? The Vikings—the greatest European seafarers at the time—used the Muslim maps.