Scholar's ink is holier than martyr's blood!

Already by 1500 more than 1,500 scientific and mathematical articles had appeared in print claims Niall Ferguson in his just released book Civilization: The West and the Rest. The reformation of 1517 fragmented the Church in Europe whereas it was lying like a wet blanket over the Ottoman Empire. Printing books became prohibited by death penalty 1515. Calligraphy of the Quran was more in Ottoman style.

It is not 'comme il faut' to point this out among Western scientists, but Ferguson reminds us that science led to proficiency in war by sharpening the weapon systems in use. He shows a graph where the results in mathematics are compared for countries of the East and the West and notes that the Easterners are beating us in tests distinctly now on the basic school level. However, we don't know if school math tests will translate in superior elite mathematicians. As I pointed out earlier, it is still up to the Chinese to prove that they will achieve the same per capita results in science as the West without freedom of thought.

Interestingly, Ferguson also points out that there is a delay in the effect of superior science by telling the tale about Ottoman siege of Vienna 1683, that could have ended badly, a couple of years ahead of the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia and John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, books that cemented the appearance of the United States by inspiring Thomas Jefferson and the Scientific Revolution.

Furthermore, Christians new that separation of Church and State was important as can be seen in the Biblical statement from Matthew 22:21 "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's". The Muslims have a problem with this to this date. Political Islam is a problem today in Europe. As I pointed out earlier, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) also quoted the Bible when claiming that Man should subdue Nature at the same time as he advocated for science.

How much of a problem is this today when the West contemplates the problems in North Africa mostly as a threat to their economy by a raised price on crude oil rather than a fight for human rights and political freedom. Well, if we look back on the Iraq war and remember how much bile the US and Britain has had to endure for the liberation of the Iraqis it should be easy to understand this. By staying out of this intervention, France and Germany began a strain on the trans-Atlantic relationship that today is cemented with differences in the economical outlook for the future. Needless to say, it is of great importance to Islamists to rule by dividing the West which Muammar Gaddafi, as Saddam Hussein, knows when he bombs his own oil installation to look for an effect on the price of oil.