The development of science is rooted in the works of Aristotle, Galileo, Bacon, and Newton. In order to succeed in the West it had to break the stranglehold of Christianity on the intellectual scene (thanks to Aquinas).<p>Further, science has nothing to do with religion in general, and the Moslem religion in particular. On the contrary, Islam is radically opposed to reason, and the few science-minded intellectuals, inspired by Ancient Greek texts, that lived undr Islam rule a thousand years ago were persecuted whenever they attempted to uphold reason over faith.<p>Parts of the growth of mathematics in the West, from time of the Renaissance, was inspired by the rediscovery of Ancient Greek texts. The Western mathematicians who looked at what Moslems had done with this were mostly revulsed, especially by their bad transaltions, and hence returned to the study of the original texts and problems, such as the Diophantine equations.