I feel that the Islamic Golden Age/Renaissance is highly and unfairly underrated these days. We ignore the great advances and contributions that the Islamic Renaissance made to the world. When Europe was in the middle of it's Dark Ages, Islamic empires were contributing to and advancing greatly in the fields of medicine, science, mathematics, and the arts.
So what I want to know is how much and what other people know about these contributions. Do we Westerners give due credit to these contributions? Do we realize their impacts? Which of their contributions were the most important? Why do some feel that the "Islamic Golden Age" is overrated? Why do some feel it is underrated? etc.
We are not here to discuss Islam. We are not here to discuss the Islamic nations of today. We are not here to discuss religion. We are here to simply focus on the contributions of the Islamic nations during the Dark, Middle, and Renaissance ages; and how these advances/contributions paved the way for future advances in the West and the World.
If you don't know much about this topic then check out this brief Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Golden_Age