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.
Framework of Capitalism + Free will + Political Freedom = ModernityAll 3 antecedents and pre-requisites for the modern world political-economy were only developed in Medieval Europe. Nowhere else.
“The rise of capitalism in Europe preceded the Reformation by centuries. As the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper explained, “The idea that large-scale industrial capitalism was ideologically impossible before the Reformation is exploded by the simple fact that it existed.” Only a decade after Weber published, the celebrated scholar Henri Pirenne noted a large literature that “established the fact that all of the essential features of capitalism—individual enterprise, advances in credit, commercial profits, speculation, etc.—are to be found from the twelfth century on, in the city republics of Italy—Venice, Genoa, or Florence.” As noted in chapter 6, the first examples of capitalism appeared in the great Catholic monasteries as early as the ninth century.”What do you need for capitalism? Culture is king, so the culture will need to dictate the following, as found only in Christian Europe, and which was prevalent by the 9th century AD:
-Political freedomThese conditions varied in Europe from the 9th to 13th centuries, but the basis of capitalism was first formed in the monastic houses; and then into secular society. Capitalism demands property rights, freedom of action, trade and a culture of responsibility if not honesty. Extant records on trade, credit, banking, even stock incorporation [from the 11th century the world's first stock-issuing corporation was formed in a monastery]; indicate a surfeit of wealth, prompted by an 'explosion' in agricultural productivity. We know that from the 9th century onwards mills, metallurgy, mining, and other advanced forms of industrialized were occurring rapidly across the Continent. Living standards rose, free-time became available [for the first time in history]; and literacy developed. Public schools were formed, and then later the first universities.
-Political fragmentation or avoiding centralized despotic empires of control
-End of slavery
-Capital, banks, credit, mortgages
-Excess wealth from an industrializing economy
-Trade both local and far-ranging
-Literacy and writing
-Culture of confidence, trust, responsibility
-Applied science and math to generate practical ideas
-Stability or some form of Pax
“It is now the consensus among historians, philosophers, and even sociologists of science that real science arose only once: in Europe. In this regard it is instructive that China, Islam, India, and ancient Greece and Rome had a highly developed alchemy, but only in Europe did alchemy develop into chemistry. By the same token, many societies developed elaborate systems of astrology, but only in Europe did astrology lead to astronomy.”
“Newton’s First Law of Motion was simply an expansion of William of Ockham’s (1295–1349) insight that once a body is in motion, it will remain so unless some force, such as friction, acts upon it. This was refined by Jean Buridan (1300–1358), who developed the principle of inertia (that unless acted upon by an external force, bodies at rest will stay at rest and bodies in motion will stay in motion). Inertia was further refined by Galileo (1564–1642), who, characteristically, claimed more credit than he deserved. Of course, Newton’s First Law was merely the starting point for his magnificent system of physics, but, contrary to claims made on his behalf by the philosophers of the so-called Enlightenment, Newton didn’t have to start from scratch.”