Cliff said glumly, "Rumors, rumors, rumors. Half the marabouts in
North Africa are proclaiming a jihad in support of the Pan-Islam
program of the Arab Union. Listen, Homer, we've got to get the
backing of the Moslem leaders."
Homer Crawford grunted. "We need Islam in this part of the world like
we need a hole in the head. That's one of the things already wrong
with North Africa."
"What's wrong with Islam? It was probably the most dynamic religion
ever to sweep the world."
"_Was_ is right," Crawford growled, now on one of his favorite peeve
subjects. "The Moslem religion exploded out of Arabia with some new
concepts that set the world in ferment from India to Southern France.
For all practical purposes Islam _invented_ science. Sure, the Greeks
had logic and the Romans had engineering--without applying the
Greek-style logic. But the Arabs amalgamated the two concepts to yield
experimental science. They were able to take the intellectual products
of a dozen cultures and wield them into one. For a hundred years or so
it looked as though they had something."