My latest in PJ Media:
In yet another installment of what is apparently a never-ending series of articles designed to make their readers take no pride in their own culture and heritage, the UK’s Guardian on Thursday published a lengthy, breathlessly enthusiastic article entitled: “Looted landmarks: how Notre-Dame, Big Ben and St Mark’s were stolen from the east.”
They are beacons of western civilisation. But, says an explosive new book, the designs of Europe’s greatest buildings were plundered from the Islamic world – twin towers, rose windows, vaulted ceilings and all.
Plundered! Of course! When has the Judeo-Christian West done anything except steal, oppress, and kill?
The Guardian article highlights the “discoveries” of a “Middle East expert” named Diana Darke, author of a new book called (what else?) Stealing from the Saracens, which the Guardian’s Oliver Wainwright calls “an exhilarating, meticulously researched book that sheds light on centuries of borrowing.”
“Borrowing” is a more polite word than Diana Darke herself used, but otherwise Wainwright is completely on board with her project, reporting her dismay at finding that it was not common knowledge in the West that everything we have, everything we have done, everything we have made, has come from Islam: “I was astonished at the reaction,” she lamented. “I thought more people knew, but there seems to be this great gulf of ignorance about the history of cultural appropriation. Against a backdrop of rising Islamophobia, I thought it was about time someone straightened out the narrative.”
Sure. And who better to do that than the illustrious Diana Darke, who is often featured on the BBC, as well as in the Guardian. It’s easy to see why she would be the British intelligentsia’s favorite “Middle East expert”: her new book, with its ridiculous claims, is yet another example of the UK elite’s ongoing efforts to compel Britons to believe that Islam is part of their own culture and heritage, so that they will be shamed into fearing to oppose mass Muslim migration into Britain, as well as jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women and others. It’s just more of Britain’s continuing cultural suicide.
In this case, the deception and sleight of hand are clumsy and obvious. Note that the subtitle of the Guardian article claims that “the designs of Europe’s greatest buildings were plundered from the Islamic world.” A centerpiece of Diana Darke’s case for that is that “Notre-Dame’s architectural design, like all gothic cathedrals in Europe, comes directly from Syria’s Qalb Lozeh fifth-century church.”
A fifth-century church. Islam arose in the seventh and eighth centuries. What exactly does the design of a pre-Islamic church in Syria have to do with the Islamic world? Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. It just happens that the site of this church was conquered by Muslims several centuries after it was built, so for Diana Darke, the Guardian, and their luckless readers, this becomes an example of how the West “stole from” or “plundered” the Islamic world.
There is much more. Read the rest here.
RichardL says
Diana Darke is no scholar as the inverted commas correctly point out. She has zero articles in scholarly journals. Zero. Not everybody with a keyboard is a scholar. Look her up on Scholar Google.
mortimer says
Who is putting Darke up to this nonsensical, counterfactual propaganda? The Kaaba is a scaled-down copy of the vast Second Temple and the Dome of the Rock is a scaled-down copy of the Hagia Sophia. Arabic numerals were copied form Hindu numerals. Islamic art was copied from Persian art. The Koran was copied from Gnostic and Jewish non-canonical texts. The Arabic script was a defective copy of the Syriac alphabet. Nothing in Islam is original or new or innovative.
INNOVATION IS A SIN IN ISLAM … Islam is non-creative, but STATIC:
(Al-Nasa’i, I, p.143) of the Prophet which says, “Verily the most truthful communication is the Book of Allah, the best guidance is from Muhammad, and the worst of all things are INNOVATORS; every INNOVATION is heresy, every heresy is error, and every error leads to hell.”
In Arabic: wa-sharru’l-umuri muhdathatuha wa-kullu muhdathatin bid’atun wa-kullu bid’atin dalalatun wa-kullu dalalatin fi’l-nari. Goldhizer, 34-35.
Bid’a has been formulated by the scholar Al-Shafi’i as having the possibility of being good or objectionable, the distinction being made where “an innovation which contradicts the Koran, a sunna, an athar, or ijma, is a heretical bid’a..” Goldhizer, 36.
Sam says
Just one notice:-
Hindu numbers are the one used in many Arabic countries ( strange)
Arabic numerals are the numbers the while world uses, they are structured that enumerates angles, such as:-
1> has one angle.
2 >which looks like a Z has 2 angles.
3> has 3 angles
4 > has 4 angles and so on.
The zero(the sifr in arabic) is a number that has no angles or zero angles.
This is to educate you and to try to launch you out of total stupidity and hate.🤣.
The term ” scientists” is mentioned in the Quran many times, and “scientists” are favored by the creator over the knowledgeable poor people, to add, the Arab mentions that the scientists will reach a high level of knowledge that all enable humanity to travel across the universe and attempt to reach the “godly” realm, using the power of science, but the godly realm will be their limits.
As I said, you and other hateful commentators are filled with extreme stupidity and total lack of knowledge, which is shameful to say the least.
gravenimage says
More from “Sam”:
Just one notice:-
Hindu numbers are the one used in many Arabic countries ( strange)
Arabic numerals are the numbers the while world uses…
………………………
“Arabic” numerals were developed in India, including the zero.
More:
, they are structured that enumerates angles, such as:-
1> has one angle.
2 >which looks like a Z has 2 angles…
………………………
Well, this is just ridiculous. Is “Sam” here claiming that 9 has three more angles than does 6? Good grief, what a moron.
More:
The term ” scientists” is mentioned in the Quran many times, and “scientists” are favored by the creator over the knowledgeable poor people,
………………………
Actually, the word “scientist” is nowhere in the Qur’an, and in fact Arabic has no true word for science. Moreover, the “Prophet” Muhammed was illiterate.
More:
to add, the Arab mentions that the scientists will reach a high level of knowledge that all enable humanity to travel across the universe and attempt to reach the “godly” realm, using the power of science, but the godly realm will be their limits.
………………………
Is that so? Citations, please. And funny that the Islamic world is so retarded when it comes to science, and that all space travel has been done by the Infidels.
More:
As I said, you and other hateful commentators are filled with extreme stupidity and total lack of knowledge, which is shameful to say the least.
………………………
Yes, “Sam” has said this–while offering nothing to back it up. Just sad.
Rufolino says
Absolutely. Makes you sick.
Sam says
Damn, I have to reply to
gravenimage here, I have written a lengthy answer but it disappeared when I scrolled up …
1- scientist or scientists is mentioned in the Quran many many times, so here it is
Scientist = A’ lem, scientists = ulama’a
Your defeat 😁
2- Mohammed was an illiterate, however, he learnt how to write and read later, but all of this was not important, he had many people who have written his sayings and he was a genius and an honorable man like Mr. Jesus Christ , I love both of them equally, plus Bhudda of course.
I’m afraid to scroll up to reread, it can be deleted, so this is a short reply to a hater and an empty headed creature called gravenimage, similar to most comentators here😎
gravenimage says
“Sam” wrote:
Damn, I have to reply to
gravenimage here, I have written a lengthy answer but it disappeared when I scrolled up …
1- scientist or scientists is mentioned in the Quran many many times, so here it is
Scientist = A’ lem, scientists = ulama’a
Your defeat 😁
……………………….
Here is the definition of Ulama’a:
“a body of Muslim scholars recognized as having specialist knowledge of Islamic sacred law and theology.”
in other words, this involves a knowledge of Islamic theology–it has *nothing* to do with science as civilized people use the word.
The idea that I am “defeated” by this mendacious claptrap is ludicrous.
More:
2- Mohammed was an illiterate, however, he learnt how to write and read later, but all of this was not important, he had many people who have written his sayings and he was a genius and an honorable man like Mr. Jesus Christ , I love both of them equally, plus Bhudda of course.
……………………….
There is nothing in any Islamic scripture that indicates that the “Prophet” ever bothered to learn to read.
Then, how is this barbarian “honorable”? He was a caravan-raider, pedophile, slaver, rapist, and mass murderer. The same is *not* true of either Jesus or the Buddha–what tripe.
More:
I’m afraid to scroll up to reread, it can be deleted, so this is a short reply to a hater and an empty headed creature called gravenimage, similar to most comentators (sic) here😎
……………………….
What “Sam” here means is that he is unable to address anything I brought up at all. And why is he babbling about being deleted? I haven’t seen any of his vicious claptrap spammed here.
And note that he considers us “haters” for objecting to his coreligionists raping and murdering us, and seeking to impose brutal Shari’ah law. *Ugh*.
Wellington says
Gravenimage has eaten your lunch, Sam.
Moreover, you will make no headway here with your hateful Jewish conspiracy nonsense, how great Islam is, et al. Too many regular commenters here like gravenimage, James Lincoln, somehistory, Westman, most certainly mortimer, FYI, Ecosse1314, et al. know far too much about Islam to be fooled by a Muslim apologist.
gravenimage says
🙂
william carr says
The Pantheon in Rome was built over half a millenium before Islam was even invented. For those unfamiliar it is a magnificent domed building
Sam says
The Petra city in Jordan was built 4,000.00 years ago(not 2 or 3 is as they say), the hanging gardens more than 4,000.00 years ago, the leaning tower in Iraq which was destroyed by the Zionist organization called the ISIS was built before the milan leaning tower which was an imitation.
The pyramids were built 4,000.00 -10,000.oo years ago by the Phoenicians (called as ancient Egyptians but were from the Levant, even Greeks traveled there to learn) …. point is, the currently called Arabs were the cradle of civilizations, and they will inherit civilization in the appropriate time, they will rule and teach the whole world the real civilization which the world, specially your world knows nothing, filled with hate and murderers.
gravenimage says
“Sam” wrote:
The Petra city in Jordan was built 4,000.00 years ago(not 2 or 3 is as they say),
……………………….
Settlements at Petra date back to about 7000 BC, but the architecture that Petra became known for date to after the first century BC, when Petra became a client state of the Roman Empire. This work Petra is famed for is clearly Roman in design.
And this, of course, much predated Islam.
More:
the hanging gardens more than 4,000.00 years ago,
……………………….
Actually, the first mention of the hanging gardens of Babylon dates to 290 BC (there is also no archaeological evidence that they existed, but let’s leave that aside), This is certainly pre-Islam, as well.
More:.
the leaning tower in Iraq which was destroyed by the Zionist organization called the ISIS was built before the milan leaning tower which was an imitation.
……………………….
ISIS is as Islamic as you can get–“Sam’s” claim that the Islamic State is–somehow–Jewish makes no sense whatsoever.
Then, there is no leaning tower in Milan–the famous leaning tower in the West is the bell tower in Pisa.
Then, the tower in Iraq did not lean immediately, and was not designed to lean–it had begun to lean, though, by the time Ibn Battuta visited in the 14th century.
The tower in Pisa was begun around the same time as the minaret in Iraq–the late 12th century–but the two had no other connection. The bell tower began to lean almost immediately, not because it was designed to, but due to sandy soil.
Yet more:
The pyramids were built 4,000.00 -10,000.oo years ago by the Phoenicians (called as ancient Egyptians but were from the Levant, even Greeks traveled there to learn) ….
……………………….
No, the Egyptians were not Phoenicians–although the two civilizations did trade with each other at some points.
More:
point is, the currently called Arabs were the cradle of civilizations, and they will inherit civilization in the appropriate time, they will rule and teach the whole world the real civilization which the world, specially your world knows nothing, filled with hate and murderers.
…………………
There were several cradles of civilization–Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. None of this has anything to do with Islam at all. Then, Islam rejects innovation and productive labor, which is why its culture is so arid and backward–that, and considering the barbarian warlord “Muhammed” to be the perfect man.
Then, this is actually a threat from “Sam” here of violent conquest. What a savage.
barbaralind1 says
You are so funny! What a strange, twisted view of the world.
william carr says
It is amazing that such a load of utter nonsense even got a publisher. I expect any architectural experts attempting to point out her fallacies will be dismissed as an islamophobe.
Francis Weber says
Yet she is allowed to Darke-n our doorstep!
Wellington says
A constant in human history: Useful idiots whitewashing evil.
Diana Darke (can’t make this surname up) comes to mind.
gravenimage says
Agreed, Wellington.
And yes–“Diana Darke” sounds rather like a Batman villain…
Keys says
LOL, Wellington. Diana Darke whitewashing history.
Brings to mind the 1619 Project.
FYI says
In the interest of Historical accuracy,Diana Darke’s next book should be..
‘Stolen from the kuffar:14 centuries of islamic appropriation and desecration of Hindu,Buddhist and Christian places of Worship”
Surely the Guardian must be open to the concept of fairness….and objective,historical study.
gravenimage says
+1
mortimer says
Marauding Muslims WRECKED the Roman Empire, blockaded all shipping on the Mediterranean, stopped trade and travel and single-handedly CREATED THE DARK AGES.
Rather than being a LIGHTHOUSE of CULTURE, Islam was a destructive EXTINGUISHER OF THE LIGHT …. and it still is an extinguisher!
gravenimage says
Grimly true. Mortimer.
Jayell says
“Surely the Guardian must be open to the concept of fairness….and objective,historical study”
You must be joking. The Guardian, like the BBC, sees everything through red-tinted spectacles that conveniently filter out anything that doesn’t fit its agenda and distorts the rest. Which is why it always uses the services of people with selective intellectual integrity, like Ms Darke. It’s been known for centuries that certain basic features of historic European architecture (e.g., churches and castles) were inspired by examples seen in the middle east, but these were usually adapted and improved upon with more advanced building techniques and materials – and any ideas that were borrowed usually came from structures and civilisations that predated islam or/and had nothing whatever to do with it. And nothing was physically lifted from its place of origin, so all this talk of ‘stealing’ and plundering’ is total garbage – that’s the sort of thing that the whole world knows that muslims routinely specialsed in, and it’s also the sort of language that loony-left-leaning ‘liberal elitists’ like to use about anything to do with British culture and history since it’s the very thing they want to destroy, and they don’t want facts to get in their way. I also take Mr. Spencer’s point about the way in which Ms. Darke (and chums) conveniently fail to notice all the ‘stealing’, ‘plundering’ ‘cultural misappropriation’ that the islamic world has been doing when it uses anything that’s been more recently invented here in the West; to which I’d add all the ‘stealing’, ‘plundering’ ‘misappropriation (cultural and financial)’ of social resources that muslims presume the right to do on a daily basis since they’ve invited themselves into the West.
FYI says
“You must be joking”.
Yes.I was being somewhat sarcastic as I know the Guardian is not known for objective unbiased Journalism.Like say the Daily Mail is..{ ok,i’m still being sarcastic}or the BBC is not in any way Leftist{..yep,still doing it..}
I’m actually in full agreement with you..i know a plea to the concept of fairness would be completely lost on the Britainistani{..sorry British…}Media
mortimer says
That Guardian article is a disgraceful abandonment of standards of truth.
The Guardian is shielding barbarity from analysis and reasonable criticism. TELLING LIES to defend Islam is not acceptable.
Francis Weber says
The only thing new that Islam has invented is suicide bombing.
Arnold Jackson says
She’s just another idiot who doesn’t know that the ONLY thing Muslims invented is the killing of people for not being Muslims.
Homer Carey says
Makes me paranoid. How does one tell the difference between Good Muslim Bad Muslim
gravenimage says
‘Scholar’ Claims Landmarks of Western Architecture Were ‘Stolen’ from Islamic World
………………….
This is just ludicrous. Firstly. cultures do not “steal” from each other–this is not how culture works. (And if it did, then every skyscraper in Dar-al-Islam would have been “stolen” from the West).
But then, this is ridiculous in any case. The Palace of Westminster–the Houses of Parliament–is neo-Gothic in style. There is *nothing* like this in the Muslim world.
Then–as noted–citing Syria’s Qalb Lozeh fifth-century church as an indication of the West “stealing” from Islam is utterly bizarre–this Church predates Islam by at least a century and a half. And this Church was itself inspired by the Roman Basilica–also not Islamic, I hasten to add.
Really, these apologists for Islam have got nothing, so they have to gin up absurdities like this.
mortimer says
Real scholars speak of ‘borrowing’ or ‘influence’ in art, architecture, literature, science, etc. They do not say that the ancients ‘stole’ ideas.
There is real ‘stealing’ of ideas, though, today by hacking. If anything, Muslim invaders enslaved knowledgeable Romans, Persians and Hindus and forced them under the whip to build their Islamic monuments. Islam ‘stole’ the lives of millions of victims.
The so-called Islamic Golden Age was short-lived, based on Greco-Roman culture and was cut off after the caliphs realized that critical thought is the enemy of Islamic authoritarianism.
gravenimage says
Islam’s “golden age” is always the death throes of the culture Muslims have conquered.
tim gallagher says
This “scholar” is probably just another of the multitude of people who live pleasant lives in our western countries but then spend all their time, in some kind of strange loathing for western civilisation and seem to spend all their time trying to drag western civilisation down and trying to point how terrible it has been and how it has achieved nothing of worth. I don’t believe for a second that Islam has brought anything positive and I’m sure that western civilisation has produced great masterpieces all on its own, not by “stealing” anything. It didn’t need to steal anything. It had its own geniuses who developed a mighty civilisation. The agenda seems to be to try and crap on any achievements of western civilisation, but I sometimes wonder if some of these “scholars” are just perverse and love to come up with weird ideas. If I said something was white, then they’d say it was black just for the sake of an argument or just to be different. If these “scholars” dislike western civilisation, which gives them a pleasant life, they should probably leave. Maybe a Muslim country would suit this woman as she thinks Islam has produced such wonders. I’m pretty sure that there were many decent, civilised countries all over the world which Islam invaded and dragged into barbarity.
nicholas william tesdorf says
As an architect, having visited Qalb Lozeh, I can tell you that the church at Syria’s Qalb Lozeh is a heavy, crude Romanesque Late Roman style church form bearing no relationship to Gothic architecture and Cathedrals of Europe whatever. I simply resembles many early Christian Churches in Rome but lacking their refinements. This is the sort of nonsense that one can expect from the Manchester Fish-and-Chip wrapper these days.
gravenimage says
This was the basic model for high Romanesque and Gothic Churches–but as you note, not nearly as refined. Of course, nothing to do with Islam in any case.
Harryagain says
Err. You haven’t seen that much then.
I have traveled extensively in the ME.
The idea of church spires was lifted from the mosque (minarets) by the crusaders.
Also many features of UK castles came from the ME
Prior to the crusades, arches were semicircular.
mortimer says
Wrong, H.A. Your claims are more spontaneous propagandaYou make up your own ‘factoids’ and state them as facts. The so-called ‘Moorish’ architecture was GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE found in pre-Islamic Spain. . The Muslims invented nothing in architecture. All was known prior to Islam. The Nabataeans carved blocks out of the stone at Petra and Madain Saleh, and all their mud brick buildings have long since collapsed.
Did you ever hear of the TOWER OF BABEL? Many ancient, pre-Islamic towers are still standing. You fail.
mortimer says
Towers needed to be round after the catapult was invented so that heavy stones would bounce off doing less damage.
barbaralind1 says
The first architecture in the M.E., and around the Mediterranean, was done by different civilizations predating Islam, and that includes the architecture of the mosque. The Arabs who later conquered the lands just took over what was already there. The mosques in Spain were copies of eastern Christian churches, like the Hagia Sophia. The Arabs were nomads, and were not in the area of the “cradle of civilization” until long after that civilization spread to areas mostly north and west of the Arabian Peninsula.
Keith O says
Stolen? She must be kidding?
Borrowed yeah, I’d go as far as to say that.
How often have we looked at a house or building and said “wow, that looks nice” and wanted to copy it?
It’s part of human nature.
The Greeks, the Romans, Europeans, everyone has borrowed building ideas and styles, taken them home, improved them, modified them to suit their own needs.
But STOLEN???? Just what drugs is this woman on?
I can only sum up this individual in one simple word,,,,,,IDIOT!
Dave from San Antonio says
Stolen from islamic world. It gets more absurd every day.
yiyoya says
Oikophobia — an irrational fear and hatred of one’s own culture and people.
Patrick White says
Ridiculous. As Hitchens said, “Anything presented without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.”
Just as the quran is an unholy and inaccurate rehash of the Bible, so Muslim architecture is a desperate lift of Greco-Roman genius, and with the added influence of Hinduism, which predates even Judaism by a thousand years.
janicevanguilder says
Council for European Canadians, July 16 issue, article by Dr. Ricardo Duchesne listed significant accomplishments of white men. Perhaps she read it, and it burned her ___, forcing a need to construct some sort of rebuttal?
David Grisez says
The ideology of Islam has made a contribution to human society, however it is not landmarks and architecture. Instead the contribution of Islam to human society is about 1400 years of multiple wars, death, misery and destruction from Muslims carrying out Islamic Jihad.
mortimer says
Yes. Islam’s ‘contributions’ have been mainly wanton destruction of trade, travel, free exchange of ideas, human rights and innovation. Islam has been an extinguisher of the light of progress.
Michael Copeland says
“What a fantastic contribution muslims make to this country!”
David Cameron
mortimer says
Though I dislike the generalization of Cameron (because it is misleading), many Muslims are getting advanced degrees in the West and are highly successful. Many Muslim immigrants to the West are better-educated and earn more than native-born Britons and Americans. However, many jihadists have come from this privileged group. This well-off group of Muslims are remaining ‘cultural Muslims’, but in private, I think many of them are lacking certainty about Islam. Within one generation, some from this may become leading apostates. We are seeing for the first time that Muslims are leaving Islam in vast numbers.
James Lincoln says
mortimer says,
“We are seeing for the first time that Muslims are leaving Islam in vast numbers.”
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that your statement is true.
The next question would be:
How does that number compare with the number of *new* muslims being created?
The numbers provided by the Pew Research Center regarding muslim demographics in, say, Europe and not encouraging:
https://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/
gravenimage says
Good question, James.
Moreover, these things are not mutually exclusive–remember the Muslim doctors in Scotland who waged violent Jihad at the airport?
mortimer says
Muslims succeed in the West not BECAUSE of Islam, but because of Western education. They succeed by ignoring Islam.
Sam says
Hahaha just take a look at the western “civilization” countries such as the NATO who have been murdering humans for the past 500 years … how many native Americans have you murdered and stole their lands?How many Africans did you murder and use as slaves? How many Muslims have you and are murdering as we speak”write” ?
Get some education you hater.
Ecosse1314 says
First of all Sam..sit down and take deep breaths
Now tell me how many blacks and europeans have the Arabs and Turks enslaved in 1400 years.? Will give you a day to get back to me.
Sam says
1948 was the start of murdering the Arabs and establishing a base for more kill and more theft called as Israel.
No need to look a long time ago, just this century, how many Arabs have your beautiful Europe and civilized America kill in the Arab world and is still killing … the al-Qaida, ISIS and similar organizations are pure mossad/cia/UK organizations, the Saudi Arabian rulers and most of the gulf rulers are Jewish Zionists taking the Arab world and it’s money … what are you talking about?I study, research, think … do you ever think?
Ecosse1314 says
Oh BTW Sam. Nato has been around for roughly 72 years. Suggest you educate yourself
Sam says
Funny … I know that NATO is new, but you know that the West has been attacking the Arab world for 500 years … I know history, do you?
Ecosse1314 says
Well obviously i know history. Your knowledge is only slightly less then my toothbrush.
Now explain the Arab and Turkish slave trade
You do probably know but too embarassed to explain
Why did you mention Nato as 500 years old when you know that was untrue.
Furthermore Arabs have a great record of killing each other without outside help.
Ecosse1314 says
Really Sam you are utterly demented if you think all Arabs are mossad agents
gravenimage says
“Sam” wrote:
Hahaha just take a look at the western “civilization” countries such as the NATO who have been murdering humans for the past 500 years … how many native Americans have you murdered and stole their lands?How many Africans did you murder and use as slaves? How many Muslims have you and are murdering as we speak”write” ?
Get some education you hater.
……………………….
NATO has not been around for 500 years, and is an alliance intended to defend against Soviet aggression. The idea that NATO kills Native Americans is bizarre beyond belief.
And then, the West *abolished* slavery–something that Islam has never done. Islam enslaves victims to this day–does “Sam” have a problem with that? Not so he says…
More:
1948 was the start of murdering the Arabs and establishing a base for more kill and more theft called as Israel.
……………………….
Israel is a tiny nation, threatened by the Muslim hordes surrounding her. This is also the only nation with religious freedom–the surrounding Muslim nations expelled or murdered their Jewish populations, which much predated Islam. Whereas, there are Muslim members of the Knesset.
More:
No need to look a long time ago, just this century, how many Arabs have your beautiful Europe and civilized America kill in the Arab world and is still killing … the al-Qaida, ISIS and similar organizations are pure mossad/cia/UK organizations, the Saudi Arabian rulers and most of the gulf rulers are Jewish Zionists taking the Arab world and it’s money … what are you talking about?I study, research, think … do you ever think?
……………………….
This only works for “Sam” if he pretends that all Jihad terror groups are actually Jewish–this is just sad. The claim that it is “Jews” running Shari’ah states makes no more sense. And why would all of these pious Muslims embrace “Jewish” leaders? Just absurd.
It also makes no sense, even by “Sam’s” standards, since elsewhere he lauds violent Jihad–why would he do this if it was secretly all Jewish? Doesn’t “Sam” here realize what a pathetic “defender of Islam” he is?
MykeJohn says
Oh l see! When a bunch of Mohammedans clique claimed the origin of life and every thing that is comely started from them while we see the exact opposite from that superior race, then let the earth tremble. Who is saying god doesn’t speak/hear any language except arabic?
Harryagain says
Errr This is common knowledge.
Anybody who has traveled in the Middle East will soon spot architectural similarities.
Anyone visiting the great castles of the ME will spot similarities with castles in the UK.
The idea of church steeples came from minarets on mosques. Churches built prior to the crusades have squat dumpy towers.
Also with the form of arches.
Don’t forget the Iraqis invented writing, architecture, mathematics, accountancy, astronomy, geometry, agriculture etc.
Virtually every branch of science.
(Pre Islam).
Oh all this was long before the USA existed.
Ecosse1314 says
I am sure there were a few Roman writers and greek. With those simple words you have betrayed your ignorance.
gravenimage says
Wait–so pre-Islamic achievements have to be chalked up to Islam? How does this work?
Harryagain says
The polymath architect Christopher Wren was disapproving of the name Gothic for pointed architecture. He compared it with Islamic architecture, which he called the ‘Saracen style’, pointing out that the pointed arch’s sophistication was not owed to the Goths but to the Islamic Golden Age. He wrote:[12]
This we now call the Gothic manner of architecture (so the Italians called what was not after the Roman style) though the Goths were rather destroyers than builders; I think it should with more reason be called the Saracen style, for these people wanted neither arts nor learning: and after we in the west lost both, we borrowed again from them, out of their Arabic books, what they with great diligence had translated from the Greeks
— Christopher Wren, Report on St Paul’s
From Wikipedia.
mortimer says
Christopher Wren was wrong … Visigoths became Romans upon arrival. Visigothic Spain was an uninterrupted continuation of Roman culture … “Muslims adopted the Visigoth horseshoe arch, seen in many Islamic buildings. Of course, the horseshoe arch is of Greco-Roman origin, and even before conquering Spain, Islam had imitated the architecture and construction techniques of the Greek Roman Empire. Indeed, Ibn Khaldun pointed out that in North Africa, the constructions built by Arabs themselves did not last long because of the Arabs’ sloppiness, poor materials and lack of knowledge of building techniques. Bango Torviso has pointed out that the the ventana bifora (Arabic-derived name … ajimez) is in fact a Roman creation widely used in Hispano-Visigoth Spain long before the Muslim conquest. (46)” p.67, The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise, Dario Fernandez-Morera
Much of the Visigothic architecture of southern Spain was demolished by the Muslim barbarians and rebuilt using Christian slaves who knew construction techniques.
Islam has always been an extinguisher of the light. Islam is a slave culture.
gravenimage says
+1
Karalina Sante says
Even assuming that Europe borrowed some islamic architecture concepts, and I am not conceding that Europe did, so effing what?
What about all the European concepts that muslims have stolen? Mainly technology and modern conveniences – things like electricity, plumbing, air conditioning, radio, tv, computers, telephones, cars, airplanes, modern medical technology, and the list goes on and one.
Meanwhile the ONLY things that muslims themselves have invented are the curved dagger for cutting throats more efficiently and the suicide vest. Everything else about their culture they have stolen from the cultures they invaded and destroyed.
andrew mckendrick says
If our architecture was inspired by Islam ,why do so many muslim “refugees” continue to try burning it down ??”
mortimer says
No … Islamic architecture was created by the slaves of Muslims who were cultured Greco-Romans, Persians, Hindus, etc. The Islamic ‘Golden Age’ was considered to be heretical by the Islamic religious leaders.
Sam says
Haha … their countries have been and are being destroyed, read and think.
Ecosse1314 says
So you can have little or no complaints about the Arab world going the same way…no?
gravenimage says
Note again that “Sam” is both claiming that Jihad terror is not Islamic and is somehow all waged by Jews, yet is fine with his coreligionists burning down our cities. This is not only ugly, it is not even cogent.
No Muzzies Here says
The title says that Notre Dame was stolen. Then in the book is says that the design was plundered. That’s not the only thing wrong with this fraudulent book.
Why the mad rush to turn the UK Muslim? Where did the self hate come from?
Ewanda says
I didn’t know that the original Big Ben sounded the call to prayer at the Haj or somewhere in the middle east. I looked for it but couldn’t find it … must have been buried by all that sand!! The biggest issue is Ms Diana’s choice of verbs – selected to generate controversy and self-aggrandizement. Could have chosen “adopted”.
Man’s journey towards civilization has always consisted of adopting ideas.
The term “Cultural Appropriation” is such a nonsensical term meant to be divisive. Where does it stop? Does she use a flush toilet”? Does she drive in a car or bus or subway? Does she ride a horse on a saddle? How about pizza, her clothing, her computer she used to research and compose her tome? We love cultural appropriation and those inventions that survive are the ones that reflect and build on peaceful times.
The truest symbol of Peace is not the Dove but the electronically self-advancing hygienic toilet seat cover seen in airports. You need a LONG period of extended peacetime to come up with that. I love our advancements in comfort and efficiency. We invent because we want to share things that we find helpful. The most freeing invention for women, in my opinion, was the arrival of the automatic washer and dryer. Sure beats going down to the riverbank. Islam is a very selfish limiting Ideology.
Francis Weber says
+1
gravenimage says
Fine post, Ewanda.
Francis Weber says
It wasn’t too long ago that Chess was declared Haram as it took your mind off thinking about Allah, so to must be designing buildings as that takes a lot of time.
Can’t invent much when you are bashing your head on the ground 5 times a day!
gravenimage says
Yep.
FYI says
Chess..
“He who plays chess is like one who dyes his hand with the flesh and blood of swine”
Sahih Muslim 28:5612
Poetry..
“Filling the belly of a man with pus is better than stuffing his brain with poetry”
Sahih Muslim 28:5611
Chess and Poetry..
So playing Chess is evil and if you like poetry you may as well have a belly full of pus:but slavery,misogyny,antisemitism,killing infidels,bearing false witness to promote islam are OK….
OLD GUY says
Just another twit.
JoBo says
Hilarious. Is she hoping for an appearance on a comedy show?