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.
When Moslems invade, conquer, or settle en-masse in a given area, infidel monuments are eradicated. Churches, artwork, libraries, the Twin Towers, or any artifice which expresses a prominent and important non-Koranic view of the world is disposed of. When the Moslem Jihad irrupted in its fascist zeal in 632 AD from the uncivilized wastes of moon-worshipping Bedouin country, and spread like a cancer from Syria to Southern France, some 30.000 churches were pulled-down, or converted into mosques. Today 'intellectuals' with Phd's would define such atrocity as an expression of inter-faith harmony and a 'golden age' of Moslem architecture.
In another article I have listed a partial account of Moslem annihilation of Infidel shrines. Many more could be added. Two of the holiest Christian sites in history were used by Moslems – the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The latter is now a museum.
Holy Sepulchre
Destroyed in 1009 AD by the Moslem caliph Hakim. It was a primary factor in motivating Western Catholics to launch the Crusades. The destruction of this Christian shrine was accompanied by a vicious persecution of non-Moslem Dhimmis throughout the caliphate. The church was rebuilt by the Crusaders during the 12th century. After the expulsion of the Europeans from the Holy Land in 1292, large sums of money were given to the occupying Turks to allow pilgrim access and site maintenance. European pilgrimages became an important source of money for the city and its Moslem masters.
The Hagia Sophia
The Hagia Sophia was an Eastern Orthodox church built under the supervision of Byzantine Emperor, Justinian, during the years 532-537 AD, until Constantinople was conquered by the Muslim Turks and the Christian church converted into the Ayasofya Mosque in 1453 AD. This 6thcentury Byzantine church was used over a thousand years later as a model for many of the Ottoman mosques; including the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (completed 1616 AD), the ?ehzade Mosque (completed 1548 AD), the Süleymaniye Mosque (completed 1557 AD), the Rüstem Pasha Mosque (completed 1563 AD), and the K?l?ç Ali Pa?a Mosque (completed 1580 AD). It remains as a museum today.
Academics and 'experts' have determined that demolishing shrines, charging ransom to enter the rebuilt [at your cost] pilgrimage site, and converting sacred structures into mosques whose work is performed by second-class Jewish and Christian slaves, manifests a wonderfully tolerant and open society, devoid of hate and bile.
Today in Iraq we have just around Mosul and stretching out to the West and South, at least 45 churches destroyed by the Moslem Fascists ISIS. Not a word in the main-stream media. Nary a demonstration anywhere in the world, by 'moderate' Moslems declaiming against the eradication of Christianity in its ancient heartland. I would guess that most Moslems are proud, happy, drenched in a supremacist neo-Nazi glow of inviolate glory; as their cult follows Sura 5:33:
“The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off on the opposite sides, or be exiled from the land. That is their disgrace in this world, and a great torment is theirs in the Hereafter.”
You won't hear 'experts' and academics repeat the above Jihadic refrain, even as Moslems kill, execute, humiliate and crucify Christians.