While surfing my favorite Muslim propaganda website, Al-Jazeera, I came upon some comments from President Obama’s newly appointed chief of NASA.
Charles Bolden, in a recent interview with that “news” outlet, said the “foremost” mission he had been given by Obama was “to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.” That got me thinking. I don’t recall hearing about a lot of great Islamic advances in the scientific community. I decided to check it out, to find what our President knows, that I have been missing.
In an online article, the San Francisco Examiner said:
Lawmakers across Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans, were surprised to learn recently that the Obama administration has made reaching out to Muslim nations a top priority for the space agency NASA. They will probably be more surprised to learn that administration officials told the Middle East news organization Al Jazeera about it before they told Congress.
The article continues:
Rep. Pete Olson, the ranking Republican on the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, got a call from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on June 28, the day the White House released its new long-term plan for the space program. “He ran down some of the things from the president’s new space policy, and mentioned outreach to Muslims,” Olson recalls. “That stunned me. I didn’t believe it.”
Anyone in Washington who is shocked or surprised by this incident need only do a Google search of “Islam and Science” and they will be made aware of some fascinating “facts”.
According to the website “Islam Awareness.net”
Muslims are responsible for correctly describing the form and nature of the Solar System. They also invented the telescope and found a cure for Smallpox. In addition, Muslims invented the Scientific Method and developed the philosophy of history (I know, I don’t know what that means either). Interestingly, based upon the appearance of this website, Muslims did not invent, nor do they care to use “spell check”.
Another website claims that Muslims correctly determined the speed of light and the period and nature of the moon’s orbit.
Following a few more links revealed that great Islamic minds also invented TV Dinners, Velcro and the Internet (sorry, Al).
Seriously though, a much more reasoned and realistic assessment can be found at: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/science-and-islam. The article’s lead in sentence pretty well says it all: “All over the world, no matter what the cultural or language differences, science is more or less guided by scientific principles—except in many Islamic countries, where it is guided by the Koran.”
Unfortunately over the years that guidance lead to the same enlightened thinking that believes the proper way to deal with an adulterous woman is to bury her to the waist and stone her until dead. That represents a real well spring of logical, contemporary, civilized thought. I just can’t imagine where science, math and engineering would be without the contributions of Islam.
So this President who never ceases to amaze, feels that NASA should not spend its money on space exploration, but rather to develop Islamic self-esteem. He can continue to deny his Muslim heritage, but in truth the apple never seems to fall far from the tree. What shall we expect next, sharia law on the moon?
Originally posted on 07/11/2010 at ConservativeCompass.com
