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Originally Posted by alansmithee
But you seem to be forgetting that Jesus is also an important figure in Islam. Also, there should be some weight given to Western countries because of the great impact they have had on the world in general. Much of the advanced Asian cultures were very isolationist, and had relatively small areas of impact. Western colonialism brought Western culture around the world (for good or bad is a whole different discussion)
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The West has had "great impact'" in the last 200-400 years. During the Abbasid period, Islamic civilization was much more advanced than Europe, and cultivated many of the sciences and branches of knowledge that were later transmitted to and continued by the West after the Crusader and Mongol invasions brought the Muslim world into decline. The Arabic language was spread from a small peninsula to a huge swath of the Near East and Africa that was once composed of a variety of ethnicities and cultures but now has formed its own identity.
That's just one example. Nearly three times as many people are native speakers of Mandarin than English. Your West-centric assertion is a little short-sighted.