I had identified cultural anomalies,
particularly in the treatment of women, that were anti modern and were prime
movers in Islam’s abject failure to modernize.
I had been optimistic that the sheer weight of modernization would
steadily encroach on this and slowly force the necessary accommodations. Yet this litany just about demands a complete
top to bottom reeducation that will go in the face of Islamic opposition even
beyond the changes imposed by Kemal Ataturk in Turkey . And there we see resurgent Islamicism
enthusiastic to reintroduce the historical patterns.
Today all nations outside the
Islamic world are hell-bent on modernization and the most intransigent is
making an accommodation. At worst we are
merely waiting for some thug to die.
The truth is that modernism is
hugely disruptive to all forms of cultural dispensations because it uplifts
everyone however badly distributed and challenges old forms of slavery based
cultures at their heart.
I do not know what the Arab
spring can bring. With the built in
cultural bias, we are likely to get a more subtle form of what we have had to
date.
The problem is we certainly need
a force fed Arab Enlightenment. Think
about it. We want evolution but may need
to apply force. Very shortly the Oil prop is going to disappear totally and the
impoverishment of the Islamic world will be apparent to all. Up to now, oodles
of money has allowed them to fake it. On
top of that the West must soon come to grips with the serious problems Islam
imposes inside their own countries. That
may in fact evolve properly yet the ongoing tension is never good and can
linger for decades.
What is going to happen is that
the rest of the world will achieve a global modern economy that has no room for
any thing like traditional Islamic practices.
This is going to take no more than thirty to fifty more years. This also means that the rest of the world
will have shed any form of militarism in terms of resolving internal conflict. That will not be true for an unevolved
Islamic polity.
The way more serious problem
facing Islam is that a Christian revival is a natural counter to the Islamic dream. It can be reconstituted as Krishna in India and as a non state based movement in China . It is already in full revivalist mode
throughout Africa . Just because we can not see it yet does not
mean it is not happening.
A Christian driven confrontation
that empowers women and supports modernism will be irresistible to the Islamic
world and can be applied across the African Front in particular were multiple
polities exist.
What is clear, the failure of the
Islamic world to embrace modernism dooms the Islamic enterprise. The remaining question is it going to be slow
and painful to millions of slaves or is it going to be as swift as possible.
Why Muslim Cultures Lag Behind
Posted by The Anti-Jihadist on Jun 3rd, 2011
In the past fifty years, many countries have caught up with the rich
and developed Western World. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, with
virtually no natural resources, have created advanced, urbanized and prosperous
societies, complete with world-class technology that often exceed that which is
found in the West. India, Brazil and China, although not yet fully developed,
now all possess large and affluent middle classes that did not exist just a few
decades ago. There is no reason to believe why their economic and social
progress of all of these countries will not continue for the foreseeable
future.
The Muslim world, on the other hand, has struggled during this era of
unprecedented global wealth creation. These countries have profited almost
solely, by happy geological accident, from oil and gas extraction. Beyond these
activities, economic activity in Muslim countries remains scant, low tech and
strictly oriented towards local consumption. Despite trillions of dollars in
oil revenue over the past sixty years, Muslim progress in many other areas,
such as scientific research, social issues and education, lags badly behind the
rest of the world.
How could this be the case? The answer, which the major media dares not
touch, lies in the very culture of Muslim countries themselves. Consider the
following cultural traits which are all typically found in majority Muslim
countries:
Belief in magic. State-owned Malaysian newspapers and
television stations routinely run breathless stories about witch doctors
(‘bomoh’), evil spirits and other forms of the supernatural. Visitors to Malaysia get a
good laugh out of such quaint cultural practices, until they realize with a
shock that Malaysian belief in such superstition is absolutely sincere. But
it’s not just here in Malaysia
where this happens. In Saudi
Arabia , witchcraft is considered very real
and a capital offence. In Iran ,
laws are on the books that make ‘sorcery’ a crime. And in Iraq , many of
the locals are absolutely convinced that American soldiers wear sunglasses that
can see through clothing and have bases protected by force fields. A culture
that is eager to embrace the supernatural takes a giant step away from
rationality and deceives itself fundamentally. Self-deception is always, sooner
or later, the path to failure.
Belief in conspiracies. Muslims take it as an Article
of Faith that various groups of so-called infidels or other outsiders are
engaged in various conspiracies to keep Muslims down, make Islam look bad, or
are otherwise up to No Good. The lack of evidence means little to a society
where ‘skepticism’ is already an unusual and foreign concept. For instance,
even well-educated Muslims will tell you, with total earnestness, that the 9-11
terror attacks were actually perpetrated by Zionists, or the CIA, or the U.S.
Government, or some other nefarious group. Never mind the vast amount of
evidence to the contrary. When presented with rebuttals from non-Muslims,
Muslims will usually just shrug it off and carry on with their nonsensical
conspiracy theories.
Lack of innovation. ` Here in Malaysia , it is telling that the
word in the Malay language for innovation (“inovasi”) did not exist until it
came from English, quite recently, as a loan word. Innovation, meaning to
create something without precedent, is a risky and therefore dangerous business
in the Islamic world. The reason for this is because Islam already has a word
for innovation, “bid’ah”. In Islam, this word is essentially the same in
meaning as ‘heresy’, which is yet another capital crime under Islamic law.
Hence creativity and individuality are utterly stifled in a totalitarian
fashion, even in Muslim countries where Islamic law has not yet been fully
implemented. Improvisation is also discouraged for similar reasons. This is a
major reason why Islamic countries are usually characterized by a near-total
lack of scientific research and reluctance to embrace technology in general.
Lack of devotion to non-family/non tribal/non-clan organizations. In
most Muslim societies, loyalty often runs no farther than one’s tribe or sect.
People from the far-off central government, or those from the next valley over
for that matter, are foreigners to be met with suspicion or hostility. Afghanistan is
a perfect example of this sort of chaos. Even if these differences are
eventually papered over, so to speak, by the force and coercion of a
dictatorship, the lack of cohesion and distrust remain. Muslim leaders usually
come into and stay in power by exploiting this very characteristic, by playing
one tribe or group off another. Patriotism amongst the general public is
another foreign concept, taken for granted in the West. Muslims may remain
loyal to Islam in general, but more importantly, to the tribe in particular.
Lack of empowerment of women. The future, no matter what form it may
take, is almost certainly going to involve more technology, not less. How well
equipped is a society for this future if half of its members are only (at best)
grudgingly given their rights? In many Islamic countries, women are often
illiterate and have no rights in essential critical life decisions, such as
those involving child-rearing, marriage or education. And why should they?
Various Quranic verses, age-old Islamic traditions, and core Islamic teachings
render women as nothing more than chattel and the property of their male
relatives—never the equal of men. And no one can ‘reform’ these teachings to something
more enlightened—see the penalty for “bid’ah” above.
Lack of personal responsibility. Muslim leaders often
lie to or deceive their own people, to subordinates, or to allies in order to
advance their own personal agendas. Remember that most Muslim countries are a
patchwork of tribes who barely tolerate one another in the best of times. Loyalty
to one’s country as a whole is next to non-existent. So, the main objective
of these leaders, whether at the top, middle or bottom, is to steal as much as
they can, while they can, in order to enrich themselves and their families,
clans or tribes—’national interest’ be damned. If you’re one of the rare
incorruptible types, or are otherwise too stupid to steal when presented with
the opportunity, then more the fool you are. Other tribes or groups are
useful as scapegoats when the need arises or when blame must be deflected.
Lack of skilled labour. Rich, developed and successful
countries like Germany, Japan
and others do not just spring into existence. It takes the efforts of millions,
skilled specialists toiling endlessly in dangerous and/or monotonous drudgery
for decades, to build and also maintain the ever-growing complex web of systems
that modern nations depend on to function. But Muslim countries, even the
ones with trillions from oil revenue, have consistently failed to create large
enough castes of technical specialists that modern nations must have. As
there are never enough people willing or able to work within their own borders,
Muslim nations are forced to outsource their labour needs. In Saudi Arabia and most Arab states, for instance,
cleaners and maids come from India
or the Philippines , while
engineers and others in the technical trades come from America , Europe
and increasingly east Asia. This trend is accelerating, paradoxically enough,
at a time when the governments of the burgeoning Arab world are having an
increasing problem just feeding their exploding populations.
Lack of meritocracy. The West has thrived not only because they have
learned to hold people responsible for their actions, but also they have
learned to give out rewards based on individual achievement. Hence
higher–performing individuals tend to be eventually in charge and reap the most
rewards (in prestige, rank, money, etc.). Westerners do not always manage to
live up to these ideals, but the concepts themselves are not questioned. In
the Islamic world, however, what counts is personal loyalty, personal
connections, and tribal/sect membership. Incompetent leaders are preferable to
competent ones, so long as they are properly loyal. Such a state of affairs
makes for incredible inefficiency on a normal day and catastrophic consequences
when any sort of crisis arises. Muslims are fond of saying “it’s God’s
will” at difficult times, which for Muslims seems like most of the time.
Actually, it’s not so much “God’s will” but more like the inevitable
consequences of their dysfunctional culture.
If you’ve read up to this point, no doubt that you could add a few more
things to this list. But remember, political correctness dictates that all
cultures are somehow “equal,” and Muslims are convinced their cultures are
somehow superior, never mind the reams of evidence to the contrary. So
while I want to be optimistic, the smart money is not riding on the would-be
reformers of the under-performing societies of the Muslim world. At least not
yet.
The Anti-Jihadist is the pseudonym of a counter-jihad writer,
activist and critic of Islam who resides in a majority Muslim country.
His work can also be found at Jihad Watch, Infidel Bloggers Alliance and Pedestrian
Infidel.
1 comment:
It may be that the online translation services are wrong, but both google and babblefish gave very different translations for innovation and heresy. Of course I was translating into Arabic, since there is no such language as Islam, which to the best of my knowledge is a religion. Heresy did translate the same as bidah.
I could be wrong, but equating Islam with Arabic, is like equating being Jewish with hebrew.
What else do you suppose is wrong, or at best, not quite right with this article?
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