Muslim Embarrassment "(T)heir entire civilization has a ‘Born to lose’ tattoo."

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ^ | November 9, 2003 | Bradley R. Gitz

[quidnunc]

Lost in the furor over Indonesian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s anti-Semitic comments at last month’s Muslim summit were other revealing parts of his speech.

The central theme of Mahathir’s rant was that 6 million Jews hold down 1.3 billion Muslims. The implicit question therein is, what is there about the Muslim world that makes it so weak that it can be held down in such fashion?

Apart from the ugly anti-Semitism, Mahathir’s depiction of the Muslim plight constitutes an inadvertent confirmation by a prominent Muslim leader of what Bernard Lewis, Daniel Pipes and other Western scholars have been saying for some time — that Muslim rage is less a consequence of Western imperialism than of Muslim shame in the face of vastly superior Western power, wealth and cultural achievement.

The Muslim world, most especially its Arab branch, is pathetically poor, militarily incompetent and ruled by some of the world’s most vulgar and brutal despots. There is virtually no respect for the rights of women (or any other human rights), scant prospects for Nobel prizes in science or literature and no stable democracies under the rule of law.

The Muslim response to these "deficiencies" has been as predictable as it is historically fallacious and psychologically transparent — to blame others, mostly America and Israel.

Of course, the Jews don’t thwart Muslim development. And if they, in their puny numbers, actually did, whose fault would that be, the Jews or the Muslims? That so many Muslims apparently believe that they can be so easily exploited and dominated by others in a way that Chinese, Indians and Koreans can’t tells us a great deal about the Muslim sense of civilizational inferiority.

In short, the central source of Muslim rage is Muslim awareness that Israel and the West are everything Muslim societies aren’t — democratic, prosperous, and intellectually alive. Empirical evidence for this just happens to have come at roughly the same time as Mahathir’s diatribe in the form of The Arab Human Development Report 2003. Compiled under U. N. auspices, the study provides a deep and gloomy immersion in the backward nature of Arab economy and culture.

Perhaps the most stunning data concern the stagnant condition of Arab intellectual life, as reflected in educational approaches that breed, in the words of the report’s authors, "submission, obedience, subordination and compliance rather than free critical thinking."

Flowing from such a lack of intellectual dynamism are some truly alarming factoids: that the number of books translated into Arabic in the entire millennium equals only the amount translated into Spanish in a given year; that the number of computers per 1,000 people in the Arab world is only one-fifth of the global average; and that best-selling novels sell only about 5,000 copies compared to hundreds of thousands elsewhere.

Perhaps more alarming still, scientific research and development fails to exceed 0.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product in any Arab country, and only one in 20 students in Arab universities studies science and engineering.

The historian Victor Davis Hanson has long argued that the superiority of Western civilization flows precisely from that which is most conspicuously lacking in Arab civilization — an openness toward new ideas paired with a relentless tendency toward self-criticism. The

West dominates because its intellectual curiosity is an ongoing source of creativity and innovation. The Arab world stagnates because it substitutes obedience to authority and superstition for receptivity to ideas. There is, then, a reason why it would be impossible to conceive of people like Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi and Mullah Omar ever holding positions of authority in a Western nation.

When viewed within this context, Islamist hatred for the West constitutes both a cause and an effect of Muslim failure; an effect in the sense of excusing it, a cause in the sense of discouraging the kinds of introspection and reform necessary for progress. In the blunt but inarguably accurate words of pundit Ralph Peters, "their entire civilization has a ‘Born to lose’ tattoo."

As long as even educated Muslims like Mahathir find it so convenient to blame Israel and America for the dismal condition of their lands, those lands will remain weak, poor and pathetic.

[Astronaut]

Well written. You'd get kicked off a college campus for saying it, but the truth is that Arab culture is inferior. They are backwards and brutal, and cannot compete with us in any area that matters. In 1945, we destroyed Japanese imperialism and replaced it with a copy of our democracy and free enterprise system. One hopes we can destroy Islamic fascism and do the same in our era.

[VOA]

bump

[tet68]

the Jews don’t thwart Muslim development. And if they, in their puny numbers, actually did, whose fault would that be, the Jews or the Muslims?

Bump.

[Flux Capacitor]

Islam kills.

-Dan

[68skylark]

The Arab world stagnates because it substitutes obedience to authority and superstition for receptivity to ideas. There is, then, a reason why it would be impossible to conceive of people like Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi and Mullah Omar ever holding positions of authority in a Western nation.

Great article. I liked every single sentence except this one.

We've had several leaders of western nations who fit in well with Saddam, Gadhafi and Mullah Omar. No one in the west should think our civilizations are immune from this type of ruler.

It is true that we're less likely to have this type of ruler, because of a number of superior features in our culture. But it can happen here if good citizens aren't careful.

[68skylark]

Amen.

[neverdem]

Excellent post.

[Loyalist]

The Germanic tribes were culturally inferior to the Romans right up until the Western Roman Empire fell.

Even in its decadence, Western Europe is still superior culturally to the Muslims who will overtake its native population in another 100 years.

Islam may be an inferior culture in all respects, but its adherents have a self-confidence in it that the West has lost in its own culture.

[Qwinn]

"only one in 20 students in Arab universities studies science and engineering."

Wow, interesting statistic. Any idea what the source is, and more importantly what the other 19 out of 20 are studying?

Qwinn

[wizardoz]

We've had several leaders of western nations who fit in well with Saddam, Gadhafi and Mullah Omar. No one in the west should think our civilizations are immune from this type of ruler.

That's for sure. Indeed, 50 years ago a good sized chunk of Europe was under the control of a man whose attitude toward Jews predates the Indonesian leader's speech.

[narses]

A Muslim ping.

[Akira]

But wait, multiculturalists swear that all cultures are morally equivalent!

The Arab countries of the middle east sit on a black gold mine and have never seen any need to develop any other industry. If you subtract oil, the total exports of the Arab world (all of North Africa and the Middle East, minus Israel) amount to less than those of Finland (a country of 5 million inhabitants, or less than one 50th of the Arab world's population).

But it's never their fault, and they've convinced the vast majority of their population of this.

[LA Conservative]

The other 19 of the 20 are either studying the Koran or flying Boeings, or both. (Those are the double-majors).

[LA Conservative]

The other 19 of the 20 are either studying the Koran or flying Boeings, or both. (Those are the double-majors).

[Maria S]

“The Muslim world, most especially its Arab branch, is pathetically poor, militarily incompetent and ruled by some of the world’s most vulgar and brutal despots.”

What an irony, given that there’s enough oil under their land to make everyone there quite well off. The “world’s most vulgar and brutal despots” of the Muslim world seem to know how to best control their natural resources, don’t they?



“Perhaps the most stunning data concern the stagnant condition of Arab intellectual life, as reflected in educational approaches that breed, in the words of the report’s authors, "submission, obedience, subordination and compliance rather than free critical thinking."


“Stagnant condition of…intellectual life…that breed subordination and compliance rather than free critical thinking”…THAT little tidbit ought to get our attention, if nothing else. Exactly what are OUR “educational approaches” breeding these days besides the dumbing down of American kids?

[Akira]

Indeed, 50 years ago a good sized chunk of Europe was under the control of a man whose attitude toward Jews predates the Indonesian leader's speech

Hatred of the Jews is one thing that can always bring together Western and Eastern leaders. The Palestinian leader at the time (Husseini) spent the war years with Hitler and wanted to bring the final solution to Palestine. Arafat has repeatedly called Husseini his hero.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

The Multicultural Fifth Column

Multiculturalists will tell you that claims of cultural superiority are racist.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

Saps For Savages

[battousai]

Well written. You'd get kicked off a college campus for saying it, but the truth is that Arab culture is inferior. They are backwards and brutal, and cannot compete with us in any area that matters. In 1945, we destroyed Japanese imperialism and replaced it with a copy of our democracy and free enterprise system. One hopes we can destroy Islamic fascism and do the same in our era.

I wouldn't say Arab culture per se, but what Arab culture has become due to Islam, before Islam the Arabs provided the world with some of the greatest mathematical, astronomical, and scientific knowledge (some borrowed from India of course). Islam is like the borg or a virus, it takes over and all else is lost.