Islam Faces a New Era

Civilization magazine (via the Wayback Machine) ^ | 1999 | Munawar A. Anees

[SunkenCiv]

Today's Muslim world is also being betrayed by a similar intellectual passivity regarding the Internet, the dynamo of the next Renaissance. While the French fight an uphill battle to prevent English from laying siege to the French-speaking world via the Net, none of the major Muslim languages plays a major role in this huge knowledge machine. Equally conspicuous is the absence of Muslim countries from one of history's greatest scientific endeavors, the Human Genome Project. Islam is not intrinsically opposed to ideals of justice, equality, and human dignity. It is folly to assume that technological sophistication or economic prosperity need weaken, or run counter to, religious belief. Meanwhile, at some distance from the ivory tower lies the grim reality of much of the Muslim world: poverty; mass illiteracy; want of basic hygiene and primary health facilities; lack of fundamental liberties of religion and speech; little protection from state persecution.

[SunkenCiv]

I've posted this a number of times on FR, time it had its own thread.

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[SunkenCiv]

threads where I've posted it:

Arab League Slams Plans For a Wireless Jerusalem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1201118/posts

Pell speech hurts efforts to boost ties, says Muslim
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1282577/posts

Pilgrims at Mecca hear call for Muslim victory
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1068844/posts

Reactions Escalate in Islam Debate
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1277485/posts

just posted a link to the 1277485 topic here:

Egyptian Progressive:'Why Can't We [Arabs] See Things as the Rest of the World Sees Them?'
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1285280/posts

[FairOpinion]

Thanks. I'll check them out.

[weenie]

Islam is not intrinsically opposed to ideals of justice, equality, and human dignity

Actually, Islam is opposed to justice, equality, and human dignity...

Where did the writer of this article learn about Islam? Certainly, not the Quran.

[Gorzaloon]

Equally conspicuous is the absence of Muslim countries from one of history's greatest scientific endeavors, the Human Genome Project.

Too bad, because given the routine reports of raping their cousins, it would be a valuable single-entity research pool. All the DNA is the same!

[tkathy]

If century after century, Islam butchers all their best thinkers, the gene pool must be seriously eroded.

[Cronos]

Muslime "languages"? ARabic is not a "muslime" language -- it's spoken by Christians inPAklestaine as well. Those in Lebanon have their services in ARabic and in Aramaic, while in Egypt the masses are in Coptic

Muslimes in Pakistan speak Urdu which is related to the Indian language of Hindi (practically the same except for the script), In Indonesia, the Bahasa language is older thanIslam.

[SunkenCiv]

He's writing for a Moslem audience.

[wentali]

Islam Faces a New Era

Yes true, it's called the dead End Area.

Some people make this out to be a religious war. Christians here, Muslims there. The Jesus lovers will love and the Mohamed lovers will hate. But real change will be made by the 3rd Man. But who is that (still invisible) 3rd Force.


Any Philosophy/Religion that promises a happy After Life, is by nature Death oriented. Especially if it teaches that Live is pain, the only conclusion drawn, is to look forward to death.
So, who is the 3rd force that can take us out of that dilemma.

[Twink]

The Koran is a valuable source to understanding Islam. More should read it to really understand what it teaches. And not the watered down version that is so prevalent but the real Koran and its authentic translation. I’m still waiting for the moderate believers of Islam to condemn the hijacking of their religion. But if one reads the Koran, there’s no misunderstanding and we’re still too stupid to see it for what it is. And there’s no moderation or moderate opinion there. If one follows the teachings of the Koran and Mohammed, there’s no discrepency - it’s stated pretty clearly. But we’ll continue to allow the so called moderates and groups like CAIR to dictate what we should believe or understand from a truly clear works.

LOL Islam is anything but peaceful - never has been, never will be. I scream sometimes at the stupidity,

[SunkenCiv]

Welcome to FR.

[WesternPacific]

We could end the WOT if we, as a technological society, are willing to use the technology we have developed and the Muslim world has shunned.

[x_plus_one]

The Jesus lovers will love and the Mohamed lovers will hate

boy are you naive.

[Basheva]

Islam is constantly “reforming” itself - backward. It has done so several times in history. That’s what cost them Spain.

In addition any society which negates one half of its population - women - is therefore aleady 50% behind every one else.

Add to this the energy put into negating that half of the population and they are more than 50% behind.

You can’t get ahead by being behind - you just end up chasing your tail.

As for the poverty aspect of Islamic populations - well they aren’t alone. Some of the worst poverty is in Christian areas of the world such as South and Central America or in Hindu India.

So, poverty is no excuse for violence.

And just how impoverished are the Islamic countries? Much of the world’s most cash producing natural resources are in Islamic countries. The West isn’t impoverishing them - in fact - it is the wealth of the West which buys their resources.

Instead of putting their earnings into infrastructure and the economy of the people, they put their money into financing violence against the very people who are buying their natural resources.

Now that’s stupid.

[Beckwith]

Islam hasn’t changed one bit in 1400 years — and therein lies its problem.

[SunkenCiv]

Much of the world’s most cash producing natural resources are in Islamic countries. The West isn't impoverishing them - in fact - it is the wealth of the West which buys their resources. Instead of putting their earnings into infrastructure and the economy of the people, they put their money into financing violence against the very people who are buying their natural resources.

A quick quote from P.J. O'Rourke's commentary in the June 2002 Automobile (pp 56-57):

[G]asoline, some recent price hikes notwithstanding... adjusted for inflation... was the lowest gasoline price, ever... [I]n 1970, we imported 22.7 per cent of our crude oil. Now we import 59 per cent, and almost a third comes from the Middle East... U.S. oil consumption went from more than 20 million barrels a day in August 2001 to about 18.8 million a day in January 2002... But the best thing we have going for us at the gas pump is the no-account, bone-idle, useless bums sitting on 65 per cent of the world's oil... [T]he total nonpetrochemical exports of the Arab world do not equal Finland's.

[from "If We're At War, Why Is Gasoline So Cheap"]

One of those ridiculous emails is circulating now, saying that no one should buy gasoline on May 15th to send a message or whatever. The way to send a message is to nuke Saudi Arabia, plant the flag, and tell the world the price of crude is going to $100 a barrel and stay there.

If 84 million drivers burned one less gallon per week, it would save about 2 million barrels per week, or about 1/7th of what we were using per week in 2002. That could be accomplished by cutting out about 20 miles of driving per driver (better planning, carpooling, change in schedule, taking the train, using the car instead of the Hummer, etc).

The best part of that? If 84 million drivers cut their driving by 160 miles a week, we'd actually see the gas tanks overflow! See, the classics never wear out. But seriously, if 168 million drivers cut 10 miles a week it would have the same effect.

[SunkenCiv]

Whoops, sorry, I muffed that joke (and the calculation). 1/7th of a day’s use in one week.

[wentali]

boy are you naive

Thank you, it is a special skill to simplify issues and reduce them to a few simple words without loosing the core meaning.
Often a confused mind expresses the Reality confusing.
.....some it takes 2814 words, 13729 characters + 233 lines.

[Tolsti]

A new era of killing and stabbing innocents in the necks?

[SunkenCiv]

Okay, this time for sure... cutting 2 million barrels a week is about 1/70th of our use. If 168 million drivers (half the drivers) cut by 1 gallon a week (not out of the question by any means) it would reduce our use by over 3 per cent.