"The rise and fall of paradise" is a wonderful book by Elmer Bendiner who's not a muslim , the book talks about Cordova ,Spain in 1490 under Islamic rule and calls it "paradise" & " best city in the world"
http://www.alhewar.com/habeeb_salloum_i ... ndalus.htm
It outlines Islamic tolerance that lead to Jews & Christians flourishing in Spain until the Catholic Inquisition arrived which we all know was nothing short of a KILLING MACHINE directed at Jews & muslims ..the Catholic Church never hesitated to use TORTURE to force jews and Muslims to convert to Christianity ..
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dungeon ... rture.html
In all the world ,only one place became safe to the fleeing Jews : Muslim Istanbul ..where they lived peaceful and productive lives for most of the next 500 years .
Unrest in Islam began in the late 19th century with Christian colonialism of Muslim land done mainly by the British & the French ,and were never provoked by any of those Muslim countries to justify their occupation .. .
Militant Islam is a creature of the mid 20th century with the colonial Christian powers insisting on maitaining their occupation .
& It's happening all over again in Iraq ..
Just two years ago , a Muslim mosque in Spain was turned into a Cathedral and Muslim worshippers were beaten ,
http://www.islam-online.net/English/New ... le18.shtml
Don't get me wrong , I'm not for militant or radical Islam and I'm not claiming that Muslims today are perfect ..I truly believe that islam is a victim of mis-understanding by its own people : Muslims ..I also find this article by Michael Malik - a British convert to Islam - to be extremely frank and brave ..
http://www.islamfortoday.com/malik01.htm
As for Salman Rushdi , I thought Muslims did him a favor by acknowledging his work , he was a nobody in need of a buck so wrote what he wrote , now he is a nobody with a lot of bucks ..thanks to the very Muslims he insulted ..he should've been totally ignored as far as I'm concerned ..and Al-Azhar's islamic Council seemed to agree ..
http://www.islamic-council.org/lib/DR.M ... ERSIX.html
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