Islam and modern European civilization

Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen, 1789

According to the tenets of Islam man is essentially good and peaceful – a view explained and defended, in our own times, by Rousseau, the great father of modern political thought... The possibility of the elimination of sin and pain from the evolutionary process and faith in the natural goodness of man are the basic propositions of Islam, as of modern European civilisation which has, almost unconsciously, recognised the truth of these propositions in spite of the religious system with which it is associated. 

Excerpt from 'Islam as a Moral and Political Ideal', a paper delivered by Iqbal in April 1909 at the anniversary of Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, Lahore.