I have written some essays on Islam and science before, but I will expand on them further here. Robert Spencer has also written about this subject in his book Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't. I will concentrate mainly on the medical traditions in the Middle East and Europe because those are the ones I have sufficient knowledge about.

A quote from Dymphna at the Gates of Vienna blog, 14 May 2008

But watch all the way to the end. [...] I am troubled by the extremes of reaction by the UK Police. On the one hand, the “community police” harass and even incarcerate the indigenous Brits for allegedly dropping an apple core on the sidewalk. On the other hand, they are seemingly helpless in the face of an aggressive crowd of immigrants who have only contempt for their authority.

This is worse than corruption. It is collapse. Corruption can be reformed, but where do you send the purported keepers of the peace for courage and judgment?

Belgian police is protecting a 17th century pulpit in the Flemish town of Dendermonde. The pulpit in the Catholic church of Our Lady dates from 1685, two years after the battle of Vienna when the Christian armies of the Polish King John III Sobieski defeated the Turks poised to overrun Europe. The sculpted wooden pulpit, made by Mattheus van Beveren, depicts a man subdued by angels and represents the triumph of Christianity over Islam. The man is generally thought to be Mohammed. He is holding a book which is generally assumed to be the Koran.

A quote from the website of the Center for European Renewal

There are many Europeans who are concerned about the future of our continent and its culture. Many of them work tirelessly in their chosen fields to strengthen European civilisation. But European conservatives do not know one another well. Conservatives respect local traditions and national cultures. But European conservatives likewise recognise that they are part of a common civilisation and it is important for European leaders to meet. Building and strengthening a network of like-minded Europeans is among our key priorities. […]

Former Labour minister Frank Field is a sober and sensible individual, unlikely to be given to flights of fancy. His observations on the character of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, therefore, should be taken seriously. Whilst it was almost certainly Brown who was responsible for stopping Field from 'thinking the unthinkable' on welfare reform, what he said of the Prime Minister has been corroborated on all sides this weekend. It is this corroboration that enables us to dismiss any notion that Field is consuming copious cold dishes of revenge.

Last week I posted the announcement of a new political movement called the Nouvelle Droite Populaire (New Popular Right), formed out of necessity, as an attempt to fill the gaping hole in French conservative politics. The UMP party of Nicolas Sarkozy is only intermittently conservative, and chronically reluctant to criticize openly its leader or to take firm stands on anything. The Front National of Jean-Marie Le Pen has suffered electoral reversals, diminished funding and justified bad publicity as a result of Le Pen's mean-spiritedness and deliberate provocations. His daughter and designated successor Marine Le Pen has not succeeded in winning over those members who left the FN in anger and frustration.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party PVV and the maker of Fitna, a controversial movie about the Koran, is back in the Netherlands after a two-week vacation in Las Vegas. In an interview published today in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the largest newspaper in the Netherlands, Wilders said that his party will stand for election in the 2009 European elections and must consider allying itself with like-minded European parties. He also called for a reunification of Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium, and the Netherlands.

A quote from Stephen Pollard at his Spectator blog, 12 May 2008

I've mentioned the Brussels Journal before; a site which plays straight into the Islamists' hands by genuinely hating Muslims. It doesn't just warn about radical Islam; it campaigns against Muslims per se. And its modus operandi is to ally with fascist organisations in Europe.

Be very careful when you read articles on the Brussels Journal. Some of the writers seem plausible; some are indeed experts in other fields. But always remember the strategy they follow. Some of the allies they work with are no less repellent than the Islamists we need to defend ourselves against.

I've written about the Swedish organization Expo before, but it seems I have to do so again. As most of my readers know, I have been involved, along with several others, in a very public debate with Charles Johnson of the major American "anti-Jihad" blog Little Green Footballs. If it can indeed be called a debate, I'm not so sure. I can personally testify that pretty much everybody on "my side" of this issue has been tired of it for a very long time. Yet recently LGF again publicly attacked Gates of Vienna and The Brussels Journal, and Johnson has continued posting negative remarks about the website Atlas Shrugs.

Some bits in the mosaic of our time are overlooked because we look for boulders. This column presents issues that might deserve attention.
 
1. Carefully cultivated myopia. May 6, 2008. A surprising sentence in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung – it is rated as a conservative organ – catches the eye. The critical words: while there can “hardly be a doubt” regarding the flow of weapons from Iran to Iraq, it is “unclear whether official government policy, or the regionally customary trafficking with arms” is the cause. Now then, it is common knowledge that Iran’s government is able to control who wears what, how people entertain and who meets with whom. Therefore, is it likely that the transfer of advanced armament in great quantity could escape the attention of rulers that monitor and direct everything?