Do you know about i-j-t-i-h-a-d ?
Not Jihad but Ijtihad ........
"ij-tee-had"
is the Islamic tradition of independent reasoning which allows every Muslim, to update religious practice in light of contemporary circumstances. The spirit of inquiry animated Islam's golden age, (750-1250 C.E.) In Iraq, the heart of the Islamic empire, Christians worked alongside Muslims to translate and revive Greek philosopy. In Spain, with western rim of Islam's reach, Muslims developed what a Yale historian calls a "culture of tolerance" with Jews. Together, all of these communities gave us the precursor to globalization. Muslims traded vigorously with non-Muslims, pioneering a system by which checks could be prepared in Morocco and cashed in Syria.
It was in Baghdad that a ninth-century caliph, al-Mamun, constructed the so called House of Wisdom- the first institution of higher learning in the Islamic and Western world....but competitive Coroba wouldn't be outdone as a crucible of ideas; it became home to seventy libraries.....(one for every virgin today's Muslim martyrs believe they're pledged)
above quoted from "The trouble with Islam Today" Irshad Manji
freefly!