What Tolerance Begets....

The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (by Maria Rosa Menocal) . This is an excellent book on al-Andalus. It is an engaging and very interesting book which covers the subject in a clear-eyed and objective way. For the Arab and Muslim bashers in the West, who speak of their exclusive "Judeo-Christian" heritage, it becomes clear that they ought to add Muslim to this equation. On the other hand, Muslim extremists, in their regressive and monochromatic view of the world, look at al-Andalus only as pure conquest and minimize the contributions of other cultures and ethnic groups within the Muslim empire. To me, the genius of Islam is its ability, in its inclusiveness, to absorb knowledge from other cultures, engage the various peoples under its wing and create a superior and advanced culture that then Europe used to lift itself out of the dark ages.