KARACHI: “’Sacred violence’ in America is defined by the Americans as ‘violence by Muslims’. They ask me why we Muslims are so violent. And I ask them instead ‘when did they stop beating their wives’,” said Prof Dr Amjad Hussain pointing to the absurdity of their asking him such a thing and his countering their uncalled for query with an equally absurd question of his own.

The emeritus professor of cardiovascular surgery and emeritus professor of humanities at the University of Toledo in Ohio, USA, was giving a talk at Habib University on Monday on ‘Past glories and current realities’.

The talk focussed on the era when Arabs and Muslims were at the forefront of development and discoveries and played a major role in sparking the Western Renaissance. That’s what the Fatimids in Egypt, the Abbasids in Baghdad, the Umayyads in Spain and Mughals in India were known for. But current times have Muslims lagging behind the West in almost every area of human endeavour.

Speaking about the highs reached by Muslims in almost every field in the past, he discussed the years of the common era, from 750 to 1100, which saw the age of Jabir, the age of Khwarizmi, the age of Razi, the age of Masudi, the age of Abu’l Wafa, the age of Biruni, etc. “People in our history challenged views and developed different schools of thought. Some examples of such people in our subcontinent in the recent past include Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Allama Iqbal who had their own ideologies,” he said.

more:

  http://www.dawn.com/news/1311750/muslim-societies-that-flourished-were-pluralistic