HISTORICAL ISLAMIC INFLUENCE ON WEST

PERHAPS RATHER THAN LOOKING BACK, as has become fashionable in our time, to all the “splendid gifts” the West supposedly received from Islam during the Middle Ages (“science”, "philosophy", "medicine", “algebra”, and if you read certain discredited Muslim apologists, practically everything civilized), our historical attention should focus instead on the barbarity that Muslims might have passed along to those Westerners who endured centuries of rule under Muslims: Slavs, Greeks, Italians, Spanish—perhaps that explains, for example, some of the brutality of the Conquistadores? It can hardly be a coincidence that they had only recently emerged out of a culture that had been under more than 700 years of Islamic rule?

Ditto this for the Sicilian Mafia and other pathologies of Sicilian culture—Sicily had been conquered by Muslims and ruled by them for some 200 years.

Considering Sicily and the influence of Islam on it—it seems that the Norman who re-conquered Sicily, King Roger and his son Roger II, who ruled Sicily were typical of modern dhimmis—they had the power, but they chose to “respect” Muslims and allowed them to inter-weave their Islam into Sicilian sociopolitical culture:

Though King Roger I (1093-1101 A.D.) put an end to Islamic rule in Sicily, he did not harm its Muslim people; on the contrary , he provided them with protection, and recognized their religion and legislation and allowed them their own judges, if they chose. He also allowed them to celebrate their religious occasions in public. In addition, he abstained from participation in the crusades in spite of the Pope's pressure. This shows that Sicily during his rule was a half-lslamic kingdom in religion and in its administrative and military system.

Roger II (1101-1154 A.D.) succeeded his father and followed his tradition in protecting Muslims through his influence and laws; some Muslims wrongly believed that he was a secret Muslim. An example of the King's tolerance and his love of justice and equality is that he inscribed all Sicilian coins in Arabic, Latin and Greek, the languages used by his citizens. He is also reported to have imitated the Muslims rulers in their loose clothes and the Roman Caesars and the European emperors in a clear indication of his lack of bias.

His court in Palermo contained a large number of Muslim poets and scientists...

Read it all but be sure to throw in a few grains of salt.