Just finished the Gutas book ("Greek Thought, Arabic Culture"). His parting thought is that the most important aspect of the translation movement in Baghdad during the Abbasid Dynasty was that it demonstrated to the world that Greek science and philosophy were international in nature, and not just matters best left to any one nation or linguistic group. By translating the Ancient Greeks, the Baghdadis had "humanized" them, and thus had set the stage for what would be the first canon of truly universal knowledge.

This is something I've always felt very deeply as a Hellenist and a philhellene, that the lessons Greece has for us are timeless, and moreover belong to all of us as human beings. Many so-called proponents of the Classics would claim to back me up on this, but can only get so far before showing their true colors - they want the world to acknowledge not only the primacy of Greek scientific knowledge, but its supremacy as well by virtue of having gotten there first. This is absurd. No one has a monopoly on what is true. The Greeks may have been the earliest culture to investigate the world in a systematic fashion, but had their works not been valued by Muslim scholars and scientists (despite being written by foreigners, and pagans to boot!), the fruits of the "Greek miracle" may have been lost to humanity forever.

Mohammed's uncle may have put it a little more crudely than I would have, but I agree with him wholeheartedly. It's a big world out there, folks, and we have an awful lot to learn from each other. So hop to it!