Why is The Arab World So Hoplessly Mired In the Past?

The New York Times ^ | August 6, 2003 | Thomas Friedman

[the_greatest_country_ever]

A 2002 UN report placed the Arab World last in all aspects of literacy, modernity, and economic progress. The entire amount of goods and services produced by the Arab World minus their energy deposits is less than that of the Netherlands.

What is it about the Arab culture that keeps it so hopelessly mired in the past?

It seems to me that the only time they've achieved success is when they've been motivated by the glorification of war. The spread of Islam from Mecca throughout the world eventually reaching as far as Spain was brought about through the glorification of war in God's name through the invocation of 'jihad', holy war, allowing the Arab World to flourish as they did in the Middle Ages by absorbing the vanquished lands into their own.

It is quite ironic that our modern numbering system is called "Arabic" numerals because it was actually invented in India but was somehow miscredited. But this is only one small illustration of the so called Arab Golden Age and what really contributed to its success.

And again in the modern era it appears that demagoguery and holy war seem to be the only way the Arab World has been able to motivate itself in any way.

But now,the Arab world has been made impotent and vulnerable as never before by President Bush's bold visionary resolve to shatter the ossified mindset so prevalent within the Arab culture by dramatically revealing the abject bankruptcy and startling nakedness of its vacuous, primitive society for all the world to see.

[Alouette]

What is it about the Arab culture that keeps it so hopelessly mired in the past?

The last progress in civilization they made was B.M. (Before Muhammed)

[Pukka Puck]

"A 2002 UN report placed the Arab World last in all aspects of literacy, modernity, and economic progress."

That can't be right. Black Africa must bring up the rear.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Why?

It's their religion.

That was an easy one.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[End Times Sentinel]

This is a duplicate post.  Originally posted under the correct title:

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/958870/posts

 

Shaking Up the Neighbors

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[anniegetyourgun]

B.M......hahaha....snicker.....

[ex-Texan]

Arabs [pronounced 'A-Rabs'] do not make mistakes. They follow the dictates of their mullahs and follow Allah. They are right because their moon god tells them they are right. Idiot writers need to understand the facts of life.

The facts of life are as follows: if you are not Muslim you are a target of jihad and you, your whole family and your community are sentenced to death.

[tkathy]

I think that polygamy is a core problem of Islam that creates many levels of abuse and suppression both in women and traumatized children.

[dennisw]

Islam's golden age? That was just science and arts they hijacked from peoples they conquered.

[jordan8]

There's been a lot of talk about the backwardness of the Muslim world but Latin America is almost as backwards. There IS a difference between cultures and people despite what the egalitarians say, and allowing massive immigration into the West won't usher in a glorious new era of one-world peace and harmony, as the True Believers think, it will simply cause those areas to join the Arab and Latin world in backwardness and the torch will be passed to other nations that don't believe in such foolishness.

[driftless]

Excellent response. This is one aspect of Bush's foreign policy that needs to be talked up more. The prospect for a domino effect across all the authoritarian Islamic countries transforming them into operational democratic and free-market societies. Of course it will tough enough just to get Iraq changed, but it's worth the effort.

[Billthedrill]

The short answer (all I have time for this AM) is that they are primarily autocratic governments that tend to put the proceeds from state-controlled extraction economies into the hands of a small number of non-investing ruling elite - non-investing, at least, in local industries that would represent diversity from the single profit-bearing one of the moment.

Islam tends to validate this but did not cause it directly, and in a number of places in the world where it is true and Islam is not present, the same result applies (some places in Latin America, some places in Asia, a LOT of places in Africa). Where a single ruling elite holds control poverty results - also corruption, patronage, and political repression. It's a natural enough form of government in a tribal situation and is the natural answer to chaos, but it can't run a modern economy.

[Valin]

Well of course what's going on in Iraq has the leaders of the Arab world worried. I'd be worried to if I was the ruler of any of those countries. To have a multi-ethnic democracy right smack dab in the middle of their area has got to keep them awake at night.

[Valin]

The last progress in civilization they made was B.M.(Before Muhammed)

Of course you do know that Moorish Granada had a library with 25,000 books, a sewer systems, streets lite at night, and 100's of public baths, this is when the university of Paris had a library with 12 books(1200's), and one of the chief Abbesses in France bragged that she never bathed?

[Alouette]

Of course you do know that Moorish Granada had a library with 25,000 books, a sewer systems, streets lite at night, and 100's of public baths,

And a very large population of Christians and Jews who built and maintained these public works.

[Steve_Seattle]

Friedman is one liberal who "gets it" about Iraq, who appreciates the boldness and promise (and the risks) of what we are attempting there. Meanwhile, other liberals (Dean, Kerry, Gore, the media) are just trying to use the situation for domestic political advantage.

[Seydlitz]

Read Lawrence of Arabia's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom". In the book, Lawrence correctly identifies two cornerstones of Arab self-perception:

1). Islam gives the Arabs a profound sense of being a chosen people of G-d. Therefore, there is nothing to be learned from us heathen scum.

2). The romanticized myths of the medieval Caliphate lead the Arabs to believe that they have but to emulate the past to again reign supreme over us lesser mortals. A corollary is that the Arabs have nothing to learn from the modern world.

[Valin]

But would it have happened without the Muslims? When I look at the rest of europe at that time I have my doubts.

[WestPacSailor]

What is it about the Arab culture that keeps it so hopelessly mired in the past?

It's the tribal mentality of the Arab world. It stifles initiative, prevents real progress, and uses the culture of absolutism to control a weak, uneducated populace.