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.
David Goetz in 'The Only Solution' describes the anti-Christian worship by Moslems of Baal correctly:
“Known originally as Baal, then Sinai or Sin, Allah was vastly accepted as the Arab's primary god of many god's way before Islam was established.....every Arab that worshipped all of these pagan gods, were more likely to accept Allah the Moon god as the ONLY god.'
Entirely correct. Allah does not mean god. It means the Lord. This Lord of Mecca, or Baal, has no connection whatsoever with the Christian idea of God.
Further, Muhammad's family, part of the ruling aristocracy of Mecca, took care of the Allah shrine, which was dedicated to Baal [Hu'Baal] or the Meccan moon deity. Moon worship was rife in the ancient Near East and the Biblical Baal or 'Sky god' is the same deity as the Baal of Mecca. Various tribes and states worshipped Baal in somewhat different forms. The Canaanites submitted to Baal as the god of the Sky, the Hittites the Lord of storms, the Babylonians as Sin or the Moon deity. Celestial worship was the default cult of the Near Eastern peoples. The cults of Baal are rightly attributed in the Old Testament, as societies steeped in the evil of human sacrifice, murder, oppression, slavery, sexual deviancy, dishonesty and violence.
The above characteristics describe Islam perfectly.