I agree with you guys that are calling BS on Obama's comment about Islam and the fabric of the country but what some of the interviews alluded to was Muslims and Jews mentioned specifically when some of the founding fathers were discussing religious freedom in the colonies.
I mean it could be reaching even further back and talking about how the areas where Islam sprung up from and their cultural influences were responsible for taking Europe out of the "dark ages" and tracing some of the intellectual ideas about enlightenment that Jefferson and company studied to that.
Not sure, Foot.
Interestingly there are a number of historians who believe that the so-called Dark Ages (term isn't really used anymore) were in fact CAUSED by the Muslims who invaded Europe in the 8th century and thereafter and who blocked off trade with China, India and other countries. The end of Europe's Middle Age seems to coincide to when Spain kicked out the Emirate of Granada.
But the Founding Fathers barely mention Islam at all, so if Obama was thinking that it shows his historical ignorance.
I have to disagree with some points. First of all the Dark Ages weren't caused by a single factor. While Islamic conquest might have influenced European history at the time Islamic rulers didn't destroy European civilizations after conquering them. At that time Islam wasn't as bad as it is now. Minorities were granted a lot of freedom under Islamic rule. And Islam was until the invasion of the Turks and Mongols the centre of science during that time which was called the Dark Ages of Europe.
The fracturing of Europe into smaller states after the fall of the Roman Empire created much more instability in all of Europe than the Muslims who got as far as Spain. I think Feudalism and the Pope's intervention with the affairs of Christian countries halted any progress for Europe. Look at all the wars that tore Europe apart during the Dark Ages I don't think Muslims were involved. The only stable part of Europe was the east with Hungary, Poland and Russian states, but they fell under the mongols whom actually did massacre and destroy anything on their way.
And with the trade being blocked was more of a political thing done by the Turks. After Constantinople(1453) fell to the Turks they started taxing a lot of the trade and making it impossible for Europeans to benefit from the east. That's also why Columbus tried to find for an easier route to the East Indies. And the time when Europe's middle ages ended hadn't anything to do with the Emirate of Granada, Which was a small piece of the south of Spain in that time. It was more thanks to the European enlightenment/Renaissance that started of in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe.
