>There is nothing in astronomy, science, and math, that requires the presence of a Muslim for work to be done. True, if snarky ;-) However rather than simply

>There is nothing in astronomy, science, and math, that requires the presence of a Muslim for work to be done. True, if snarky ;-) However rather than simply a hollow cheerleading of Islam, perhaps parent was referring to the fact that several of the mathematical/astronomical devices that Copernicus employed bear a remarkable similarity to those of earlier Muslim astronomers such as Urdi and Ibn al-Shatir (who had rejected Ptolemy several hundred years before). Indeed, the similarities are so strong that some scholars suggest that Copernicus simply MUST have been directly influenced by this earlier work. Now it surely remains possible that Copernicus independently discovered all this, and never read Urdi or Ibn al-Shatir. But I believe it's beyond dispute that many aspects of what eventually became Heliocentrism, originated earlier, in the geocentric theories of the Maragha school of Islamic Astronomy.