Isis want to destroy the knowledge that Islam is a beautiful

The words of Frankie Boyle—“Isis want to destroy the knowledge that Islam is a beautiful, scientific and intelligent culture, and we are way ahead of them.”—resound as both accusation and defense, a reminder that the violence of extremists is not only against people, but against memory, wisdom, and truth itself. Here, Boyle speaks of a deeper war: not only the war of bombs and bullets, but the war against knowledge, against the remembrance that Islam has for centuries been a fountain of brilliance, art, and science. To distort this truth is to rob humanity of its heritage.

For indeed, the knowledge of Islam is vast and radiant. From the eighth to the fourteenth centuries, scholars of the Islamic Golden Age illuminated the world. While Europe languished in its Dark Ages, Muslim scholars preserved Greek philosophy, advanced mathematics, mapped the stars, and healed the sick with medicine far beyond their time. Algebra was named by Al-Khwarizmi; Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine guided physicians for centuries; Alhazen laid the foundations of optics. To call Islam a beautiful, scientific and intelligent culture is no flattery, but a statement of history’s truth.

Isis, in their ignorance and cruelty, sought to destroy this memory. They bombed ancient cities like Palmyra, smashed statues that bore witness to civilizations older than their own, and silenced teachers, poets, and thinkers. For they understood—though blindly—that knowledge itself is power, and that if the true heritage of Islam shone brightly, their narrow hatred would wither in the light. By erasing history, they hoped to chain the future. But Boyle declares: they are already defeated, for the treasures of Islamic culture remain, carried in books, in architecture, in language, and in the hearts of those who still study, still remember, still create.

History gives us vivid examples of such attempted destruction. When the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, they cast books into the Tigris River until the waters ran black with ink. They believed they had destroyed the center of learning. Yet knowledge survived, carried to Damascus, to Cairo, to Cordoba, and later into Europe, where it nourished the Renaissance. So too with Isis: though they strike at libraries, monuments, and memory, the knowledge they fear cannot be erased, for truth is resilient and ideas are eternal.

Boyle’s words are not only about Islam, but about the resilience of all human cultures when faced with ignorance. For every tyrant who has burned a book, another hand has copied it. For every monument torn down, another artist has built anew. For every teacher silenced, another voice has risen to speak. This is the lesson of history: violence may kill bodies, but it cannot kill truth. Knowledge will always outlast terror, for it is the seed from which civilizations are reborn.

The lesson for us today is clear: we must protect knowledge as we would protect life itself. We must honor the truth of cultures in their fullness, resisting those who seek to reduce them to violence or caricature. We must teach our children that Islam, like all great civilizations, is a tapestry of science, art, poetry, and wisdom, not the shadow of extremism. And we must never forget that to destroy memory is to weaken the soul of humanity.

So, O listener, let Boyle’s words be both a warning and a charge. Stand guard over knowledge. Celebrate the beauty and intelligence of culture. Do not let extremists, of any creed or banner, steal the truth of who we are and who we have been. And remember always: the destroyers of wisdom are many, but those who preserve it, teach it, and live it are stronger still. For in the end, the torch of knowledge passes forward, and as long as it is carried, no darkness can prevail.