[swarthyguy]

Doesn't look good, does it, if you have a faith, hope and belief in our strategic campaign to entice the "moderate" arabislamic states to our side and win the hearts and minds of the jihadis. This 'hearts and minds" campaign is looking like a multigenerational effort.

I'd rather have 'em by the short hairs!

[swarthyguy]

Arabs say Arab World Hopeless.

[dennisw]

This report will have zero impact because so few Muslims will ever read it. The MusloManiac world will keep on banging out 7-10 kids per family in it's demographic warfare with the rest of us. Impoverished masses of MusloManiacs will flock to Jihadist doctrines and the young unemployed men will be drawn to fighting the bloody Jihads.

[EaglesUpForever]

No doubt it's a multigeneration effort, and unfortunately if the hearts and minds don't come around soon enough the shorthairs will come first. Murderous cults masquerading as religion aren't generally won over with reason.

[First_Salute]

See: [Arab] Businessmen hit out at US move to target Saudis, Arab News, July 1, 2002, by Dhafir Al-Julfan (posted by SJackson).

[PsyOp]

"The whole Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one-fifth the number that Greece translates," the report said. In the 1,000 years since the reign of the Caliph Mamoun, it concludes, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in just one year.

That explains a lot. And my guess would be that most of the ones they do translate are obscure rants against the U.S. and Isreal.

[Tench_Coxe]

They're about 700 years late in their conclusions.

[gcruse]

"its lack of hospitality to anyone of free spirit, anyone who is a dissident, anyone who is different..."

           Is that Islam or [donning asbestos overalls] social conservatism?

[timestax]

bump

[RightWhale]

The UN says this. It's similar to what Musharraf said about Pakistan. Even some Palestinians say this about Palestine. It's going to be a struggle considering the deadweight anchor of those who control the masses. But there is plenty of upside potential if they can ever get moving.

[HHFi]

There is a way to turn back the tide of Islamofascism, but it takes a lot of ruthlessness and a total disregard of world opinion. Assad did it in Syria. It's basically the same way you deal with fire ants. If the leaders of some of these other Middle Eastern countries, who have been funding this idiocy and allowing its proponents to use state-owned media to promote it, ever wake up and realize the damage it's causing to them and the danger it poses to their own wealth and power, they might suddenly grow the cajones necessary to do the dirty work and solve this problem for us. If that day ever comes, there are going to be a whole lot of bulldozers flattening a whole lot of madrassas (after the soldiers have first made sure the doors were locked with everyone inside, then riddled the walls with bullets.) That was the Assad solution.

[Sonny M]

Islam peaked and hit its golden age about a thousand years ago, problem was, they kind of stayed there. Since the world has moved on without them, and to great success, they grew bitter, since they are supposed to be the true religon. The blame the world for their being ignorant, poor and weak. They have oil which should produce great streams of revenue to help the people, but instead does nothing. They produce nothing of great significance, and their intellect is built soley on religion of their knowledge and interpretation of it. Since they are religious in their culture, and the koran forbids interest or usary, they have no way to generate wealth or create capital or spur investment. Hamil Banks or true muslims banks are very volatile. Since they have dedicated themselves soley to their religon, and since they can not comprehend or admit mistakes, they blame. Israel consistantly defeats the entire arab world in wars, it must be somones fault. The United States is a dominant superpower, they got their on somones back, europe (as crappy as it is) is doing well compared to them, they exploited people or threw the muslims out of spain. They are of a self defeating culture without the motivation to change and succeed, since they are so hopeless in their lives, they look forward to death since the koran makes it look so good if you follow the religion and engage in jihad. When their is no hope, there will be rage and anger and blame and ignorancy (or stupidity).

[ProudEagle]

blunt new report by Arab intellectuals commissioned by the United Nations warns that Arab societies are being crippled by a lack of political freedom, the repression of women and an isolation from the world of ideas that stifles creativity.

NO....ya think? Glad to see the New York Times is on the cutting edge of societal evolution.

[jackliberty]

For the Palestinians in particular, the report says, human development is all but impossible under Israeli occupation.

I expect the authors had to put in this slam on Israel to avoid the fatwahs being issued against them. After all, the Palestinians were doing so well prior to 1967.

Even if this report is translated accurately into Arabic and every man, woman and suicide bomber reads it, it won't matter; the Holy Qur'an already has it covered. Surah 9:51 "Nothing will afflict us but what Allah has ordained for us."

Change is for Christians, Jews and polytheists; not Moslems.

[BossLady]

"The report does not directly criticize Islamic militancy and its effects on intellectual and economic growth..."

Could THIS possibly be part of the bigger problem????? If a society cannot govern itself...then there is literally nowhere else to go but down....especially if a large part of them are illiterate!

[weikel]

bump

[truth_seeker]

The report does not directly criticize Islamic militancy and its effects on intellectual and economic growth, although Ms. Khalaf Hunaidi said this was implicit in passages that refer to a less tolerant social environment.

A "less tolerant social environment?" Try fanatical international murderers. In order for a report like this to have meaning, it needs to first be "honest" in language.

Islam itself is the problem. Islamist militant extremism/fundamentalism and TERRORISM is just one result of the severe shortcomings of Islam.

All of the other problems mentioned are the other results.

I will be pleased if by whatever means necessary, that TERRORISM is defeated. As for all of their other problems, well, let them solve them by themselves. Free access to our universities, and vast oil revenues have been squandered and wasted. We need give nothing more to them.

[Drew68]

Islam is a religion of losers.

[Movemout]

Five will get you ten that the authors of this report will be the subjects of a fatwa in short order.

[Alouette]

In the 1,000 years since the reign of the Caliph Mamoun, it concludes, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in just one year.

And all of them are Mein Kampf!

[Publius6961]

I'd rather have 'em by the short hairs!

Amen!
The universal language, seldom misunderstood by primitive societies.

We must bear in mind that in Islam, the secular and the religious are inseperable.
And when you have clerics daily reminding the unwashed that failure to even remotely approach the level of civilization in the rest of the world is failure to adhere to the fundamental tenets of Islam, i.e. conquest by the sword and fundamentalism in all things, who can possibly expect a positive change anytime soon?

A moderate (or rational) muslim not living in the west is an oxymoron.