Building Self Confidence

This page collects articles highlighting the contributions of Non-Europeans, especially Muslims to weaving the fabric of contemporary human civilization.

An extremely harmful effect of Eurocentric History on non-Europeans is the loss of self-confidence. The Eurocentric idea that the light of reason first dawned in Europe, when all the rest of the world was in darkness, chained by superstitions, and that since then all human progress is due to European innovators -- is obviously quite depressing. It suggests that our non-European ancestors never achieved anything, and by implication, we are also unlikely to contribute anything worthwhile to human civilization. There are THREE different approaches to countering this poison, all of which need to be done simultaneously:

1. Debunking Eurocentric History -- many inventions that are claimed by Europeans to be uniquely their own, are not. This is the "Theft of History" idea, that Europeans stole invention of other civilizations and claimed them for their own.

2. Braudel and his school of History show that the fabric of human civilization has been woven by a combinations of civilizations and all have contributed to creation of history, all have had their own unique impacts.

3. Highlighting Achievements of Other Civilizations, which have frequently been along dimensions neglected by the West -- indeed, the criteria for greatness have been defined to highlight areas of western achievement and deliberately ignore and neglect the vast areas along which the Western Civilization has failed spectacularly.

This is meant to be a MASTER PAGE, containing links to SUBCOLLECTIONS on different themes falling within this general topic of highlighting non-European historical achievements.