COMMENT By Yilmaz Alimoglu
Toronto Star Community Editorial Board

The current state of Muslims is downright depressing, conflicted by internal, ideological wars, pagan nationalism and tribalism.

As Muslims, we love to blame the West and Israel for our current terrible state. This is pure denial and a convenient way of not doing much to change our situation because change for the better is difficult to achieve. Real change starts with individuals who make the choice and commitment to change. It also involves a lot of hard work and asking some serious questions.

Relative to the 15 million to 20 million-strong Jewish community worldwide, there are more than 1 billion Muslims living on this planet today; yet the Jewish community has produced many more scientists, writers, poets, musicians and statesmen than Muslims in the last 200 years and generally is a more active, productive and influential player in the global economy. Both communities continue to waste precious time, energy and resources fighting each other – bookends of the same prophetic lineage. We have fallen victim to power struggles; in the process, the weakest members of our societies end up suffering.

Ironically, between the 8th and 14th centuries in Andalusia (southern Spain and Morocco today) it was a different story. During that time, Christians, Muslims and Jews all lived together in a golden age of intellectual creativity, tolerance, respect and harmony.

Andalusia was a shining light for the world, producing great scholars like the philosopher and scientist Ibn Rushd, also known as Averroes, who some credit with being the founding father of secular thought in western Europe, and the great Islamic mystic Ibn al-Arabi. Ibn Haldun laid out the foundation for modern management, psychology and sociology. Abu al-Qasim, known in the West as Abulcasis, is regarded as the father of modern surgery.

Had Nobel Prizes existed during that era, many Muslims would have won them.

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