A missed opportunity...

Dear brothers and sisters

Well, I said I'd write up that lecture by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hanson on "The Forgotten Debt - the Islamic world's contribution to the West", so here goes:

The lecture started 45 minutes late, the vast National Theatre in Abu Dhabi had a respectable audience, the event was organised by the Zayed House For Islamic Culture - their website is http://www.zhic.ae/

Hamza Yusuf spoke very eloquently for 100 minutes, a tribute to his scholarship and devotion to spreading the true meaning of Islam to his fellow Americans and the world at large. He is a very impressive speaker, extremely articulate and knowledgeable. Unfortunately, I feel that this particular evening, 21 April 2008, he was 'preaching to the converted' and that we were already aware of his central thesis - how the Islamic world interacted with the classical world prior to the establishment of Islam and that the Islamic world flourished during the 'Dark Ages' in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Hamza Yusuf is a linguist and gave interesting points as to the origin of words and how the Islamic world "contributed" or "flowed into" the Western world and beyond. At length, aided by PowerPoint slides he listed this contribution:

• coffee
• soda
• spices
• candy
• ice cream
• wheat
• music
• textiles
• furniture
• architecture
• glass making
• gardens
• windmills
• the Arabian horse
• science - mathematics / medicine / astronomy / robotics / herbology / pharmaceuticals / navigation / cartography / university education / libraries / literature / hygiene / chess / polo

OK, great, fine, Sheikh Hamza, your particular audience was probably aware of these contributions and we learned a few extra items and were entertained by your witty jokes and excellent command of Arabic. My point is that your discourse would have had so much more weight if it had brought us up to the 21st century and considered the PRESENT world situation of how is the Islamic world contributing to the pursuit of knowledge and enrichment of the human condition. With the immense resources at its disposal, has the Islamic world witnessed another 'Renaissance' and dynamic push for development and progress? What about the FUTURE? Sheikh Hamza Yusuf played safe by looking in the rear mirror and focusing on the 'Golden Age' when Islamic rulers, scholars and travellers spread knowledge far and wide across the ancient world.

Yes, I was disappointed. I learned very little new from Hamza Yusuf and questioned some of his interpretations. Indeed, if you a quick Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/ search on Hamza Yusuf, you will see that he has evolved from a very radical, 'anti-Western' stance to the smooth-talking, 'acceptable' face of Islam for the likes of George Bush and Tony Blair - how and why did this come about?

I felt that Hamza Yusuf was very slick and a very polished speaker. He would do well in the corporate world, his Institute in California http://www.zaytuna.org/ will fill you in on some of his activities.

So, has this digression helped? Is this the future of the blog to look at such issues and to see if we can inaugurate some debate? If so, then we need ideas and discussion. I will quite happily get on with my life and let this blog drift along in CyberSpace. However, if my report has proved interesting and the questions that I have posed might provoke some answers, then comment below and post your thoughts!

WE are waiting to hear from YOU!

Standing by

Yours in faith

Tony