It is very strange that so many in the Islamic culture seem to have little or no interest in technology or developement. With all the wealth some of them have they could establish production facilities for just about any major industry they wanted. But they don’t. Instead they build indoor ski resorts and palm-shaped islands for luxury homes. Why not entice a Toyota plant or two? Or maybe get Sanyo or Sony to build some factories? Or how about establilshing some top-flight technical schools? Surely they could entice highly qualified instructors to spend a few years getting their own people up to speed then take over the task themselves. Or have they done this and I simply ignorant of the fact?
I always wondered since the Islamic technological achievements were based on what earlier Greek and Romans and Hindus achieved in the the areas the Muslims ruled if there was a direct correlation between the decline in population of Greek and Armenian and other Christian peoples (and Jews and Hindu/Indians) in the Muslim world and the decline in Islamic technology and learning.
In other words - the Muslims were supported by the more advance non Muslim native peoples they ruled over and over time as those people were persecuted out of existence the Muslims lost that knowledge base.
The problem with trying to build a manufacturing base in the arab world is literacy. Those (few) that can read don't want to do manual labor and you need to be literate to operate and maintain a factory/assembly plant.