Balaord, I tend to be secularist and do not jump into religious debates. But list that you refer to (Greatest inventors)has 1 moslim and about 25 xtians. I do not see xtians jumping to prove a point. See, this is the difference, we all practically agree the leadership of Europe in modern science. I am a hindu and I do not feel defensive when I read their books, theories and ideas. That is called INCLUSIVENESS. The more we mingle and exchange ideas, the more we progress. Even Islam was progressive in its nascent stage. Arabia gave the world a lot of ideas, artistic and scientific.
However, later it closed its windows, stopped new ideas and EVEN persecuted new thoughts. When you do that even great civilizations die. China closed its door and from a world leader in science and technology it becam a nation tamed by Europians - imagine a country that invented gun powder and rockets - enslaved by people who just improved upon their own concept. The reason is that in China the ideas flowed outwards but inward flow was stopped.
Same thing happened in India. After numerous aggressions our ruling and religious class closed the civilization and one of the most modern nations of that time slipped into slavery.
The point is not whether muslims had Al Jazari. The point is even when they had him, they are in dark ages of engineering and science. This is because Islam's preachers do not want new ideas. They think they know the ultimate truth. There is no scope of reform in Islam.
