As I read history, the supposed flowering of Islamic civilization a thousand years ago was not an indigenous Muslim phenomenon. Such advances as they achieved were owing to the Dhimmis (compliant infidels) who had been captured and enslaved during the Jihads from 637 AD onwards. It was the Jews, Christians and the Persians who were the managers, bankers, and scientists that enriched the Islamic civilization of that time. But eventually, the Dhimmis died out and their children converted to Islam to avoid the second class status of Dhimmitude: and progress stopped. Higher “education” in Islam is much as it was in medieval Europe. Islamic scholars stroll around in their robes with their disciples in tow. Any inquiry is considered an effrontery to the authority of the professor and is not received kindly. The subject matter is the Islamic trilogy with no end to the theological debate.
Even today, young men in black hoods and AK 47’s patrol Middle East campuses to assure nothing “counter to Islam” is on campus! It gives new meaning to the term “hostile learning environment”, a concept used by progressive professors in the United States to sue students who ask disagreeable questions.
In Islam, Mohammed is considered the final prophet, and it is believed there is no reason to study anything else. No one dares admit that running a 21st Century society on 7th Century aphorisms is problematic.
Islamics compensate for the backwardness of every Islamic society on earth by contempt for and feelings of superiority over all non-believers. The only way Islamics can validate these feelings is to destroy the civilized world, to roll the standard of living back a 1000 years and to force submission to Islam.
Thus, the mythical flowering Islamic Civilization of yore was really theft and deception. What else would you like to reach out and understand or dialog about?