Hi Thomas, Kevin, Rasheed
Please correct me if I'm mistaken but it seems the three of you all
blame the West for whatever problems there are in the Arab nations.
For example, Thomas wrote:
> I'm afraid the difference is partly very banally explained: from
> then on, the western armies defeated muslim armies (from austria
> onwards towards the south-east - in those times the muslim empire
> reached austria!). Later on, the west took over many muslim countries -
> southeast asia became English/French, Indonesia Dutch, Africa was divided
> etc etc. Thus Muslim culture was prevented from developinhg any further -
> and christianity was expanded... Not so nice a picture, this.
>
> I read this all in a fascinating article in the Times Literary Supplement.
> It tries to explain (partly again!) the hostiliy from Islamic cultures
> towards the west. This not so much explained by wealth of lack of it, but
> by cultural frustration.
A cursory look at the history of nations reveals time and again various
peoples throwing off the yoke of "oppression." So now that the colonial
powers have long since departed, what's keeping the Arabs from forming
democratic, capitalist, free enterprise, private property, individual rights,
free speech countries? I can't think of anything other than stifling, static
social patterns that haven't changed much since the Middle Ages.
Blaming others for one's problems (the West in general and Jews in
particular) and refusal to take responsibility for one's own welfare sems
to be the prevailing Muslim "paradigm" today. This attitude together with
the elevation of conformist "groupthink" to wisdom is bound to keep the
Arab nations from ever achieving the glory of their past when the West
was on a level with the brutes. Unfortunately, the paradigm of "It's not
my fault" seems to be spreading its allure to many in the West, too.
Platt
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