Can anyone give one example of a contribution to civilisation made by a Muslim or an Islamic country ??

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emiss	To answer just the question , the very first chemist's were Arab Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

RichyBaby	Strange question. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

cahilld11	Most of our current medicine is based on islamic practise. A pretty big contribution seeing as we were still using leeches to cure headaches about 200 years ago! Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Cyrus M	your question is so laced with hate and rascism that it is a shame to even try and respond. think about your question next time you fill your car up with petrol you ignorant egoistic rascist.. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

*sx-kitten**	Considering how much they have contributed to civilisation over the last 2000+ years, I think it is only fair that they can have a 200 year break! And by the way- how much have you contributed to society recently? peace x Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Simon D	Congratulations. This is the most asinine question posted to date. Firstly the question is unfair. It's like saying why are African Americans or Native Americans poor. When the rich cultural history is pointed out to you, you say, "yeah, but since they've been oppressed, Nothing!". The Middle East has suffered from colonial expansion in the last 200 years. And despite what you believe, before that their civilisation exceeded even the America of today. You don't have to believe me, history is stored in books. I don't particularly like fundamentalists of any religion. When they get violent like the Muslims I particularly dislike them. But that is no excuse for ignorance. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

dink2006	Indonesia ,Palm Oil palm oil has many uses,used in cooking oil,used to make margarine,Vitamin A &E,Some countries looking at use as a biodiesel just to name a few. Same county is a source of hardwoods. Without these so called Islamic countries I think you forgot about oil &gas. If you go back farther than your 200 years check out maths ,you may not be using your PC without it. I think everyone will agree some Islamic countries have caused problems over recent years lets hope things improve. If you check our history (England) we caused problems here and overseas. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Voight-Kampff	It's not worth dignifying your foul ignorance with an answer. You should be ashamed of yourself. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Max K	You have already made up your mind and also answered your own question, so I wonder why you ask. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Our Man In Bananas	Most of what we got before the Industrial Revolution, in terms of art, science, mathematics, learning came from the middle east. Ore did you think the Catholic Church gave us all that before the Industrial Revolution? It´s funny how you´re targeting 200 years as your cut-off date, as that is the era when Western Europe began to eclipse the middle east as the centre of the worlds power - and this was due as I have said to the Industrial Revolution. I guess you just want to be able to say that your western society is superior, never mind that it is religious intolerance and bigotry that stifled scientific advances in the middle east, in much the same way that Christian fundamentalists in the USA want to stop research ... So go ahead, use 200 years as the cut-off point, but don´t forget that the Moors in Spain had hygiene and medicine while the rest of Europe lived in the dark ages due to the overwhelming control exerted by the Church ... For example, the plague in the middle ages hardly touched Granada, but devestated the rest of Christian Europe ... wonder why? If it makes you feel good to arbitrarily take 200 years as your date, and then use that to prove your superiority, then feel free, but it´s not honest at all. Happy to help Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

ancientcityentertainment	persian carpets Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Buk	Cool head gear Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Red	Hookahs? Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

satirev	oil. all kinds of things other than that, especially over the last 200 years...any aspect of culture has had some contribution from an islamic state...but im guessing that you wanted a response like, "terrorism" or "war." Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

frenzalpixie	Oil. Saudi Arabia. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

linkinpark4life	This question is stupid Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

vporvictoria	Do not worry about them, worry about what you have contributed to the world Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

nicky	Here's a couple: Ahmed Hassan Zewail, an Islamic Egyptian, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1999 for advances in Femtochemistry. These advances may one day help Chemists make new molecules Fuzzy Logic - relevant to many modern appliances (from washing machines to subway trains) was introduced in 1965 by Lotfi Zadeh, an Islamic Iranian. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

patois	Here's a good site to learn more about Muslim contributions to the world: http://members.tripod.com/~salems2/muslim_contribution_to_the_world.html The amusing aspect of this question is, someone just asked me this today on the beach, "Can you name just ONE example of a scientific discovery that Christians didn't steal from Jews?" Interesting how the group mind works, isn't it? Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Thinker	Sounds like you just want an excuse to slag Muslims off, I can't believe some of the ignorant answers people have left. You lot never heard of live and let live? Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

frankturk50	To who's civilisation?I am sure they have done many things within their own ask all the people who pay a fortune to visit Dubai ,Jordan or Egypt. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

mike1942f	Graham is reaching a bit, since Islam came into existence about 600AD and reaching back beyond that is a bit tough. I think it is pretty accurate to say that for the 200 years you specify, the Muslim world has been pretty burned out from Christianity beating it down after it invaded most of the Mediterranean and from the failure of government that is not separated from the church which leads to the stupid inter-religious fights we see linking to nationhood. Like if the Confederates were Lutheran. Of course, the last 200 years has been the industrial revolution and most of the contributions to philosophy were made before then. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Bud#21	They contribute thousands of beautiful women, to planet Earth. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Golden	no. for the last 200 years islam has been surrounded and dominated by the christian world, so not really a fair question. however there have been important islamic contributions to civilization: in algebra, geometry, medicine, astronomy, Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

tricky	Oil, lots of it. Where would so called "civilized countries" be without it. After all, without oil it would not be possible to make the chemical based plastic packaging that wraps every item we buy, god forbid, without oil we might even need to hang our meat raw in the market! Also, Many of the great scientists and engineers working in Europe and the US emigrated form Islamic countries. Just because the country itslf is not producing much, its people are! Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Westhill	Arabs have contributed many of the things that make us civilized, including the phonetic alphabet (which greatly increased literacy), cloth, the fork, and soap. As for the last 200 years, civilizations rise and fall. What "contributions" have the Romans and Greeks made lately? I bet you wouldn't advocate nuking them. Here's short but informative article: http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=247 Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

?	Its sounds like you mean a contribution to your civilisation. Missing the point that Islam is a civilisation of itself with high moral and family values and a rich culture. I'm going to stick to personal opinions rather than research. My favourite contributions to western culture are cricketing Imran Khan, Inzamam ul Haq, Wasim Akram Mohammed Yousuf et al. Then there is food, you just can't argue against Muslim food - ok I know must "curry" is termed Indian but its really Pakistani or Bangladeshi or Indian Muslim- the British in "India" ate mostly Halal food partly because Hindus don't eat beef and most of the British were stationed in Northern India. Oh and I forgot the Kebab! MMMMMMMMM!!!! The Mughal empire was a civilisation of itself which contributed much of the culture and architecture which is now seen as India (Taj Mahal etc) Politically what about Anwar Sadat who took the middle east out of the wars of the 60's and 70's in the face of Israeli aggression. He got the Nobel peace prize for visiting Israel and was assassinated by the army. I recognize you limited it to the last 200 years which is a little harsh since for most of that time Islamic countries were generally colonies subjugated within Western Empires. Practically all classical Greek and Latin literature was lost in Europe during the dark ages and was preserved by Islamic scholars. Schoolkids may not appreciate the invention of algebra, but believe me its a good contribution to civilisation if not the school curriculum. The future (cut and paste) Certain academics, such as Jorgen Nielsen (Towards a European Islam, London: Macmillan Press, 1999), suggest that there is currently emerging a new brand of Islam in Europe, which is often termed European Islam. While this new kind of Islam is not exactly defined, it could be described as combining on the one hand the religion's basic duties and on the other European culture, values and traditions (such as secularism, democracy, gender equality as perceived by the west, the European system of law, etc.). Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Graham H	200 years is a bit harsh when you consider that they were writers, scholars, artists, historians, astronomers and builders while we were still painting our faces blue and living in caves. Historic contributions:- Birthplace of all human civilisation, inventors of papyrus, the origin of your numbers and alphabet, fine cotton clothing, rugs and carpets, ceramic and gold artwork, sailing ships and merchanting, thoroughbred horses, fine food. So much to choose from but I'll go with thoroughbreds as you asked for only one. Will that do? Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

tiko	CJ, you really are on a roll here. Your depiction of Muslim societies suggests you are as ignorant as you are intolerant. One answerer above me provides quite few examples, so go educate yourself and drop the gross generalizations. How would you feel if others generalized America as an all-gun-toting, obese, fanatically religious, war-mongering, Evolution-denying, sugar-gobbling, oil-depleting, planet-damaging people? Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Natanovich	The arabs invented the decimal number system we all use the world over. They also invented the astrolobe, and named many of the stars. They created detailed astronomical charts, used for navigation, and developed some pretty cool mathematical techniques and notation. Abul Hasan invented the telescope. Ibn Yunis invented the pendulum. The first watch was made by Kutbi, and an arab watch was presented to the French Emporer Charlemagne. The watch was quite a novelty in europe at that time. The mariner's compass was invented by arabs. Al Masudi invented the windmill. The arabs were also renowned for their fine skill with textiles. The moors were very well dressed, and envied by both europeans and jews across the iberian peninsula. It is likely fundamentalist religion has retarded significant arab advances in the sciences in more recent years. Of course, that same problem threatens american scientific advances. Look at how many folks here in the US think science is all wrong--that cosmology is completely wrong, that evolutionary biology is completely wrong, that embryonic stem cell research is evil, geology and nuclear physics are all wrong, and that our scientists are complete idiots deceived by Satan because they reject literalist interpretations of scrolls penned by mediterranean goat herders 40 centuries ago. We best be careful lest we find ourselves hamstrung by a christian taliban. Look at Pat Robertson issuing fatwah's against foreign heads of state! Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No

Sherry Baby ( Ethan's Mama )	Two hundred is a relatively little amount of time, considering all of the achievements they reached before hand. I know for sure the laser technique developed by Dr Ahmed Zuweil ( Egyptian) is the ultimate slow-motion camera, which allows scientists for the first time to observe atoms during chemical reactions, when they are moving at speeds measured in femtoseconds (one millionth of a billionth of a second). We are talking here of a time scale that is totally alien to our normal, that is, biological, time scale. As such a condensed time scale lies outside the scope of our senses, the discovery will have no discernible impact on our everyday life, even if its importance for numerous fields of scientific endeavour cannot be overstated. It must be good he won a Nobel prize for it.!!!! Another of my favourites is Naguib Mahfouz,( another Egyptian and Nobel Prize winner) He wrote among others a beautiful and intelligent set of books called the Trilogy. Also Anwar Sadat, yet again another Nobel Prize winner, who was the first Arab, Muslim leader to try to extend the hand of peace to Israel. My favourite although not in 200 hundred years is they taught us Christians personal hygiene. When Christianity forbade any kind of bathing as a sin, when Europeans were full of lice and fleas and drowning in their own stench, Muslims bathed and wore perfume and kept themselves immaculate. Was this answer helpful to you? Yes / No