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

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

[the_greatest_country_ever]

Shaking Up the Neighbors By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

AMMAN, Jordan — Shortly after the 25-member Governing Council was appointed in Iraq, the head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, questioned the U.S.-appointed Council's legitimacy. "If this Council was elected," complained Mr. Moussa, "it would have gained much power and credibility."

I love that quote. I love it, first of all, for its bold, gutsy, shameless, world-class hypocrisy. Mr. Moussa presides over an Arab League in which not one of the 22 member states has a leader elected in a free and fair election. On top of it, before the war, Mr. Moussa did all he could to shield Saddam Hussein from attack, although Saddam had never held a real election in his life. Yet, there was Mr. Moussa questioning the new U.S.-appointed Iraqi Council, which, even in its infant form, is already the most representative government Iraq has ever had.

But I also love Mr. Moussa's comment for its unintended revolutionary message: "power and credibility" come from governments that are freely "elected." If only that were the motto of the Arab League. Alas, it is not, but it might be one day, and that brings me to the core question of this column: What has been the Arab reaction to Iraq? The short answer is: Shock, denial, fear and some stirrings of change. The shock comes from how easily the U.S.-British force smashed Saddam's regime. The denial is manifest in the absence of virtually any public discussion among Arab elites as to why Baghdad fell so easily and why such a terrible regime was indulged by the Arab world for so long.

"The most striking thing," one Arab diplomat remarked to me, "is that there are no debates going on [in the Arab world.] There is no W.M.D. debate. There is no debate about the atrocities and the mass graves. Even inside Iraq there doesn't seem to be much soul-searching, like there was in Germany after World War II. That is worrisome to me. People have to learn from the mistakes that were made, and there is no attempt at doing that." The denial is closely related to the fears. Many Arab leaders and intellectuals seem to be torn between two fears about Iraq: fear that the U.S. will succeed in transforming Iraq into a constitutional, democratizing society, which would put pressure on every other Arab regime to change, and fear that the U.S. will fail and Iraq will collapse into ethnic violence that will suck in all the neighbors and look like Lebanon's civil war on steroids.

For now, though, a few governments are getting ahead of the curve, while most are still hiding behind it. Jordan's King Abdullah has been the most pro-active, pushing his conservative population down the path of economic reform, and is likely to begin experimenting soon with political reform as well.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah recently convened an unusual dialogue between Sunni and Shiite clerics in Saudi Arabia to head off tensions that could flow from Iraq's being ruled by its Shiite majority for the first time in its history. Fears that a democratically elected Shiite-led government in Iraq could stir downtrodden Shiite minorities around the Arab world to demand more power are rife among the dominant Sunni Muslims. Many Sunni Muslims look down on the Shiites as inferior. Think how Southern whites would feel if a black had been elected governor of Mississippi in 1920, and you'll have a taste of how uneasy the Sunnis are about a Shiite-led government in Iraq. While Saudi Arabia is introducing more reforms at home than generally thought, too often it is one step forward, one step back. Just the other day another moderate Saudi columnist, Hussein Shobokshi, was sacked under government pressure. According to The A.P., Mr. Shobokshi had recently written a column imagining a Saudi Arabia where his daughter could drive and he could vote. Egypt remains totally gridlocked on reform, while the Syrian regime is going totally the wrong way, tightening its grip at home and pushing out all the freethinkers in Lebanon's cabinet.

As long as it is not clear how Iraq is going to come out, Arab regimes can practice denial. But if there is a decent government elected in Baghdad in two years, it will be as easy to ignore as a 10.0 earthquake. I think Abdul Rahman al-Rashid, the editor of London's Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, got it right when he remarked to me of the U.S. invasion of Iraq: "It is a mix between Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and the 1967 war. There is the shock of defeat like '67 and the introduction of new thinking in the region like Napoleon. I can't predict how it will all come out, but for some reason I think it will be positive." 

[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.

[Owl_Eagle]

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.

[Valin]

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.

Is that why they preserved and studied Aristotle and other ancient Greeks?

[RayChuang88]

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...

Mind you, the Moors that ruled southern Spain were in many ways quite distinct from the Arabs that conquered from the east. It's very likely the Moors back then spoke their own language as much as Arabic.

In my opinion, the reason why Islam grew so fast just after Mohammaed's time was just as much economic as political--after all, the Arabian peninsula was a crossroads of trade between Europe and Asia and down the east coast of Africa. Because the Arabs effectively cornered that east-west trade small wonder why the Europeans looked fervently for a way to NOT having to deal with the Arabs when trading for goods from Asia, hence the numerous exploration voyages from the 1400's on by European powers.

Ironically, many of the greatest achievements of Islam were NOT done the Arabs. Saladin was a Kurd that beat back the Crusaders from what is now Israel and Lebanon; it was the Ottoman Turks that finally overran Constantinople and put an end to the Byzantine Empire; and it was Moors of northwest Africa that created the great Islamic cities of southern Spain. I think within 20 years Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will be the richest countries in the Persian Gulf, mostly because all three countries have figured out that their geographical location could make them the warehouse of Eurasia quite easily and help revive the ancient trading routes through the Arabian Peninsula.

[Redleg Duke]

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

Because that sick religion preaches of nothing in the future other than death and paradise.

[Seydlitz]

Lawrence is not talking about how medieval Arabs acted and behaved. Rather, he is explaining contemporary Arab perceptions and beliefs about the past. The Caliphate was an advanced, tolerant and prosperous society. However, the modern Arab belief is that it was religious orthodoxy, not tolerance and scientific inquiry, that made them great.

Remember, it is not what the facts are or were, but what people believe them to be that shapes their attitudes.

[SauronOfMordor]

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.

Islam prospered as long as it was expanding by conquest, and had a steady inflow of loot, women, and slaves who knew how to operate a civilization. Islam's "Golden Age" ended when their expansion was halted. When they actually had to PRODUCE goods THEMSELVES, rather than having Western or Indian slaves do it for them, and exchange these goods in free trade, the Muslims sank into poverty. This poverty was only reduced when a new source of unearned wealth (oil) was provided to them

[SauronOfMordor]

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

The Muslims helped keep Europe in the Middle Ages, due to Europeans having to consume resources fighting off the Muslim invaders, the Muslims cutting off trade with Asia, and Muslim pirates cutting of much other trade

[the_greatest_country_ever]

Ditto, Amen to that, yes indeed.

[SpinyNorman]

Islam prospered as long as it was expanding by conquest, and had a steady inflow of loot, women, and slaves who knew how to operate a civilization. Islam's "Golden Age" ended when their expansion was halted. When they actually had to PRODUCE goods THEMSELVES, rather than having Western or Indian slaves do it for them, and exchange these goods in free trade, the Muslims sank into poverty. This poverty was only reduced when a new source of unearned wealth (oil) was provided to them.

Bingo!!

Add to that a group of allegedly wise mullahs, whose grasp on power and respect in their societies comes only from keeping their students in abject poverty and misery, with the misbegotten promise that killing innocents in this life (to spread Islam, and thus, the mullahs influence) is the only way to escape their self made plight. Treating women as animals is the only way for Muslim men to achieve some sort of power in their pathetic lives.

It is a horribly vicious cycle.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Friedman is one liberal who "gets it" about Iraq, who appreciates the boldness and promise (and the risks) of what we are attempting there.

No, he really doesn't get it -- this was just one of those rare moments of lucidity for him.

Usually, he's busy wasting column inches bleating and bitching about the Likud party, and hectoring Israel and the GOP with his moral equivalence bullclinton re: the Middle East. He can't ever criticize the so-called palis without leveling some sort of equivalent criticism of Israel, lest he appear anything but "balanced" and "fair."

The "NY Slimes/Saudi Peace Plan" just shows what pompous, self-impressed gasbag he truly is. Like I said, he has his moments of clarity, but for the most part, he's a leftist who's more concerned with maintaining his sophisticated facade of "balance" and "fairness."

[freeangel]

They are reaping what they have sown

[RightWhale]

Your comments are directly on target. The idea now is to act on them. There are already several agreements sponsored by the UN and signed by most of the countries in the world dealing with human rights, women's rights, and all these other rights. Now the mullahs defend their Islamic Law by saying that it is competing claims against human rights and due to cultural relativity no one can come inside their sovereignty and run their business.

However, and this is the easy part, when some of their students, and they are their students, take action outside their own area of sovereignty against someone under another sovereignty, all these claims of competing rights are made null and void.

These miscreants are violating human rights all over the world and if claims are brought against them, IN THEIR OWN COURTS, they will be shut down.

Make it so.

[Seydlitz]

Islam did not prosper by conquest alone. In fact, the height of Muslim civilization (11th-13th centuries) came well after the period of rapid conquest (7th-9th centuries). There is a gap of several hundred years in which Muslim conquests carried on at a much, much slower rate.

Muslim civilization atrophied for simpler reasons: Religious conservatism eliminated scientific inquiry, industry was shunned in the honor culture, internecine warfare weakened the rival Muslim states, and Tamerlane's Mongols smashed all of the Muslim states but for the Mameluks in the 14th century.

The Ottomans recovered things a bit, thanks to a series of brilliant sultans in the 15th and 16th centures. However, when these great men disappeared, the slide into decay resumed, as it does to this day.

[Alouette]

they preserved and studied Aristotle and other ancient Greeks

That was during the centuries B.M. After that "The Profit" told them to burn all that infidel junk because everything they needed to know was in the Koran.

[SauronOfMordor]

Islam did not prosper by conquest alone. In fact, the height of Muslim civilization (11th-13th centuries) came well after the period of rapid conquest (7th-9th centuries).

The period of rapid conquest in the 7th-9th centurues mainly concerned Arabia and North Africa. The "the height of Muslim civilization (11th-13th centuries)" came during the period when they conquered India (1175 to 1340 AD), Anatolia (the region which today includes Turkey, and which then was part of the Byzantine Empire)

[Light Speed]

I percieve we are headed to journeys within Islams machination obsession known as extortion.

If they cannot physically effect their desired will..they move to extortion...this is the historic path.

Papal Rome got tired of the relentless military option..and went to the vault for gold and notary land concession.
Current Islamic projection will not get either...so its a no brainer..they will tantraum again.

Sources for tantruam...
Currently..the Bush admin is taking apart their WMD designs peicemeal....North Korea is very much part of this.
Syria and Iran have lofted thier strategem on missiles..the reality is that the systems they possess are of low capability..and suspect performance.
for a few decades..the SCUD reality was a fear projection...now it is known..that the SCUD series and N.K. Nodong knock offs are useless as theatre weapons.
Iran is having all manner of failures in their R and D concerning the N.K. missiles and part supply..which is soon to dry up.
Some Islamic nations do have nuclear devices..but do not have a missile to loft a nuke...Pakistan may be the only nation capable so far..unless China has assisted in altering the warhead for SCUD configuration.
Israels missile aquiring system now offsets the limited potency of the Islamic missile.
it is projected by Janes and other intel sites that the Islamic nations are capable of deploying low yield warheads..250 -500 kg tnt..or bio/chem.
If they were to use them on Israel.or fire them on U.S. forces in the Gulf..it would be met by a level of Nuclear response which would obliterate their military capabilty on many levels.

So ..ya...they are going to tantraum for sure...and I suspect they will encourage Al Qeda and other terror orgs to be about afflicting the U.S. and Israel to achieve satisfaction..and effect a recovery..bywhich both nations come to Islams doorstep to parlay with respect.

This will not happen though...what remains is for the movers too destabilize current realities for thier desired outcome...ie..support insergent opps in Iraq..derail the Israeli relationship with the Muslim world...generate trouble to cause political intransagence in both America and Israel.

Islam will tantraum......film at 11:00

[DoctorMichael]

It's their religion.

DING DING DING

We have a winner.

[Salem]

      Unlike the inspirational verses of Isaiah or the advanced rationality of Jesus’ parables, the Koran only offers rote learning. To invest so much time in memorising such lines makes it unlikely for you then to question them. The little children taught to memorise the Koran instead of multiplication tables at the madrassahs (religious schools) have no spiritual maturity that would allow them to form alternative questions. At least the little children learning the parables of Jesus are advancing their understanding of how metaphors and analogies can be used to illustrate deeper spiritual truths.

      God has urged us to seek understanding above all else. In Psalms 14:2-3, this is equated with doing good. Hosea 6:6 says Jehovah desires the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings, and Zephaniah, chapter 1:4-6 says he “will cut off…..those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for him”.

      Consider too, Proverbs 4:7 ‘Wisdom is the principal thing: therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.’ Proverbs is full of such messages. And consider how Solomon pleased God by choosing wisdom over other gifts.

Quoted from ISLAM: A Critical Review

Economics, demographics, and political movements over the centuries notwithstanding, the writer of this articles' claim that Islam is an intellectually oppressive and bankrupt religion is his most damaging. The Judeo/Christain principles the West was by and large founded on are the key to its prosperity and freedom, as well as Israel's, an oasis in the midst of the Middle East darkness.

[CyberAnt]

It's a 4000 yr old hatred issue with the Jewish people.

[Tabi Katz]

Whoa! This from Thomas Friedman's pen? Proof that bright lights occasionally shine in dark tunnels. No doubt tomorrow he'll be back to shaking his finger at Israel, lecturing them to make nice with their Palestinian "peace parters" who will not be happy as long as there is a Jew breathing on Israeli soil.

I'll grudgingly concede, though, that he certainly hit the mark today. The disease that infects much of the Arab world (dare I say most, at least at the leadership level) values not innovation and production, but destruction and death. I'm beginning to wonder if crude bombs are the only things they've produced in recent decades. Could it be something in the regional water supply - or the Unholy Koran?