Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was superior to anything Islam had developed. Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam. Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions. Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'. Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.
"Remember the name of our Lord morning and evening; in the night-time worship Him: praise Him all night long." (Koran 76:23)
"They question you about the phases of the moon. Say: 'They are seasons fixed for mankind and for the pilgrimage.'" (Koran 2:189)
Islam or Submission, has little in common with a religion or a faith. Submission denies tolerance, reason, the golden rule, and the main precepts found in the New Testament. It is a dichotomous fascism – be nice to fellow cult members and ruthless to the 'Other'. There is no liturgy of ethics, spiritual development, reason, or faith-based action.
Allah is ilah, the one Lord [not God], and Allahu Akhbar means Allah is the first among equals [not God is great]. The ilah of Mecca was the Lord Hub'Al derived from Ba'al or the sky-god of Mesopotamia, revered throughout the Near East, who morphed into different gods depending on the epoch, geography and tribe in question. Some investigators believe that Allah is the Meccan moon idol. Others maintain that it is the Sun god.
Extant information strongly indicates that this Al-Lah idol was the male moon deity of Mecca, with the Sun goddess Al-Lat as his consort. Other historians assign Al-Lat to daughter status of the Al-Lah. Whatever the interpretation of Al-Lah or Al-Lat there is not denying that they represent the Moon and the Sun and have no connection whatsoever to Judeo-Christian theology.
N.J. Dawood, transcriber of the Koran
"Long before Muhammad's call, Arabian paganism was showing signs of decay. At the Ka'bah the Meccans worshipped not only Allah, the supreme Semitic God, but also a number of female deities whom they regarded as daughters of Allah. Among these were Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Manat, who represented the Sun, Venus and Fortune respectively."
Charles Dupuis, The Origin of All Religious Worship
"The Caabah of the Arabs was before the time of Mahomet, a temple dedicated to the Moon. The black stone which the Musulmans kiss with so much devotion to this day, is, as it is pretended, an ancient statue of Saturnus. The walls of the great mosque of Kufah, built on the foundation of an ancient Pyrea or temple of the fire, are filled with figures of planets artistically engraved. The ancient worship of the Arabs was the Sabismus, a religion universally spread all over the Orient. Heaven and the Stars were the first objects thereof....”
Barbara G. Walker The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
"Late Islamic masculinization of the Arabian Goddess, Al-Lat or Al-Ilat—the Allatu of the Babylonians—formerly worshipped at the Kaaba in Mecca. It has been shown that 'the Allah of Islam' was a male transformation of 'the primitive lunar deity of Arabia.' Her ancient symbol the crescent moon still appears on Islamic flags, even though modern Moslems no longer admit any feminine symbolism whatever connected with the wholly patriarchal Allah."
Theodor Reik, Pagan Rites in Judaism [chapter "The ancient Semitic moon-goddess"]:
"All Semites had once a cult of the moon as supreme power. When Mohammed overthrew the old religion of Arabia, he did not dare get rid of the moon cult in a radical manner. Only much later was he powerful enough to forbid prostration before the moon (Koran Sura 4:37). Before Islamic times the moon deity was the most prominent object of cults in ancient Arabia. Arab women still insist that the moon is the parent of mankind.
And
"The Hebrew tribes, or rather their ancestors, were the latest wave of migrants from Arabia. The cult of their god was associated with Mount Sinai—the mountain of the moon. The experts assume that the name Sinai derived from Sin, the name of the Babylonian moon-god. In Exodus (3:1) Sinai is called the mountain of the Elohim. This suggests that it has long been sacred.”
Semitic influence in moon worship, reflected at the orgy at the base of Mt. Sinai and the worship of the golden calf [which was a common representation of the moon idol], while Moses was being instructed by the Hebrew Yaweh, was itself a derivative of Mesopotamian and Babylonian culture and theology. Both the Mesopotamians and Hebrews migrated into Arabia and both groups dominated for long periods of time, various parts of the peninsula. It is only sensible that the Near Eastern worship of the moon would find its way into pagan Arab practice. Sin, Baal, Hub'Al or Al-Lah is quite clearly the veneration of a moon idol.
See also.