[SkyPilot]

"But Arab countries generally suffer problems related to infrastructure, poverty and illiteracy -- particularly digital illiteracy," he said.

I was walking through the streets of Amsterdam a few years ago, and the section was predominantly composed of Muslim immigrants.

There were hundreds of able bodied young men, sitting on park benches and street corners, drinking tea, smoking, and arguing with each other (mostly arguing). They talked and talked and talked.

There was one man working, and he was the one selling tea and cigarettes.

The Arab world is extremely unproductive. If it were not for oil revenues, I cannot imagine the level of poverty it would be in.

Furthermore, I don't believe there ever was a "Golden Age of Islam" for science and mathematics.

Whatever achievements they claim were lifted entirely from Greek, Roman, and other cultures that they looted and plundered.

[hometoroost]

It's tough to master 21st century technology when you live in the 12th.

[31R1O]

Really, I understand that after the fall of Rome that Present day Iraq was the center of science, medicine and many other arts.

[Publius6961]

Arabs lag behind in digital revolution

There is little good to say about the state of the world today; this is one of the bright spots.

It's a good thing.

Imagine high technology in the hands of hate-filled apes...

[Publius6961]

"The Arab presence on the Internet is almost zilch ... not more than a few websites providing information or personal sites," said Syrian Telecommunications and Technology Minister Amr Salem.

Mr Salem may be ashamed to say it, rightfully so, but I'm not:

98% of the arab presence on the internet is related directly or indirectly to mass murder, mayhem and destruction.
Not exactly a legacy to be proud of a few hundred years hence.

[tkathy]

I wonder how many women and girls have free access to the internet? I would like to see statistics on this.

[goldstategop]

The real reason the Arab Internet doesn't exist is due to the same reason it doesn't exist in Cuba. It would destroy the Arab regimes' power - the same regimes that have kept their people backward, illiterate and bereft of hope for a century. So its completely understandable they don't want freedom to break the dam that keeps Arabs mired in the past.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[opinionator]

Yeah, but they did invent 'zero'. As soon as they invent 'one' they will breach the digital divide.

[Duke Wayne]

Is there any schools in the Arab world other than schools that teach hatred for anyone who is not of the Islamic faith?

I mean this in all seriousness, do they have any type of higher learning over there, or do they all leave that area, come back or not come back. They have all the money to have the finest schools yet they live like it was the middle ages and then we wonder why this group of idiots cant get with the progress that the world has made.

This might be the biggest problem these people have. They are for the most part mental midgets. They don't know if they are on foot or horseback, yet they want to tell civilized nations how to run things.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Furthermore, I don't believe there ever was a "Golden Age of Islam" for science and mathematics.

Whatever achievements they claim were lifted entirely from Greek, Roman, and other cultures that they looted and plundered

 

Arabic philosophy is not important as original thought.  Men like Avicenna and Averroes are essentially commentators.  Speaking generally, the views of the more scientific philosophers come from Aristotle and the Neoplatonists in logic and metaphysics, from Galen in medicine, from Greek and Indian sources in mathematics and astronomy, and among mystics religious philosophy has also an admixture of old Persian beliefs.  Writers in Arabic showed some originality in mathematics and in chemistry – in the latter case, as an incidental result of alchemical researches.  Mohammedan civilization in its great days was admirable in the arts and in many technical ways, but it showed no capacity for independent speculation in theoretical matters.  Its importance, which must not be underrated, is as a transmitter.  Between ancient and modern European civilization, the dark ages intervened.  The Mohammedans and the Byzantines, while lacking the intellectual energy required for innovation, preserved the apparatus of civilization – education, books, and learned leisure.  Both stimulated the West when it emerged from barbarism – the Mohammedans chiefly in the thirteenth century, the Byzantines chiefly in the fifteenth.  In each case the stimulus produced new thought better than any produced by the transmitters – in the one case scholasticism, in the other the Renaissance (which however had other causes also).

- Lord Bertrand Russell, A History Of Western Philosophy (1st Edition, 1945)

 

[Dahoser]

The Arab world is lagging behind in the digital revolution, with Internet users making up less than four percent of its population, according to participants in a telecommunications development conference in Doha.

Great, yet another digital divide fee to be tacked on our phone bills. /s

[ncountylee]

When the educational system consists of learning the teachings of Mad Moe the filthy, illiterate, pedophile prophet, a few subjects will be neglected.

[ml/nj]

I don't believe there ever was a "Golden Age of Islam" for science and mathematics.

See long ago discussion at What, Exactly, are the Great Achievements of the Islamic World?

ML/NJ

[rodeocowboy]

The title of this story is as obvious as saying "South Park" is a cartoon! Duh, these people live in the stone ages.

[Spirochete]

Overall arab literacy is low. Saharan countries have literacy rates around 50%. Even more prosperous arab countries have 80% - 90% literacy.

Writing was invented in that part of the world, and they have 10% illiteracy in the best of conditions. Collectively, they publish or translate around 300 books per year.

[SauronOfMordor]

Furthermore, I don't believe there ever was a "Golden Age of Islam" for science and mathematics. Whatever achievements they claim were lifted entirely from Greek, Roman, and other cultures that they looted and plundered.

The "Golden Age" of Islam coincided with their time of expansion, when there was a steady in-flow of loot and slaves who knew how to run a civilization. When this in-flow stopped, so did the Golden Age

If it wasn't for oil, the Arab world would be an inconsequential hell-hole of no interest to anybody

[BIGLOOK]

Three brothers, Abdullah, Moamar and Bashi, were mourning the passing of their father, reading his last will. He'd bequeathed them his herd of 17 camels to be divided thusly:
1/2 to the oldest;
1/3 to the middle son;
1/9 to the youngest.

They spent the day arguing over the division, at a loss for a solution, when an old man rode up on a camel.
They explained their problem and the old man nodded and said, "Add my camel to the herd and proceed".

Abdullah received 9 camels,Moamar 6 and Bashi got 2.

The old man retrieved his camel and rode away. They shouted their thanks after him, to which he replied "Shalom!".

[kittymyrib]

The only electronics they need is the cell phone to detonate IEDs. If they had to use what Arabs have invented in the past thousand years, they'd be reduced to running over people with their camels.