The backwardness or failure of the Muslim world --- whether in knowledge and science, in politics and governance, or in development and human rights --- are nothing but the fruits of Islam.
The fruit never falls far from the tree. What are the practical results of Islam’s political and cultural ideology? What is the fruit on the tree? Islam is a complete civilization that rejects every aspect of kafir civilization as being inferior. Islam’s Golden Age claim is an assertion that Islam is the superior civilization. The Koran says that Muslims are the best of nations.How does the best of nations compare at the level of politics, economics, and culture?
Islam claims that the Koran is the perfect book with the perfect political and social doctrine that will make Muslims intellectually superior to kafirs. Remember that the Koran is the perfect recording of the mind of infinitely intelligent god, Allah, so Muslims should be the absolute leader in knowledge and ideas. Islam is the finest, most perfect idea that can exist.
Knowledge
First, a personal question: what Muslim author have you read lately? That is a personal approach and since this book is about objective reasoning, we need objective data. The United Nations has put together a series of four books that measure Arab society. Now Arabs are a minority of Muslims, but there is little data about Islam as an entire civilization and so the Arabs have to represent all of Islam. The Arabs are the oldest Muslims and Saudi Arabia can make a claim to being the most perfect Islamic nation. Mohammed was from there, and the Koran makes special claims about the Quraysh tribe and Arabs in general. So the Arabs are not a perfect measure but they are the best measure.
The most popular way to move information today is the Internet. England has about 48% of its population connected to the Internet; while Saudi Arabia has 2% of its population connected to the Internet. High-income nations have 380 computers per thousand people. Arab nations have 20 computers per thousand people. The world as a whole has 80 per thousand.
But there is not as much need for a Muslim to explore the information on the Internet. “Starting in early childhood, the [Arab] child becomes accustomed to suppressing her or his inquisitive and exploratory tendencies.”
The education curricula “seem to encourage submission, obedience, subordination and compliance, rather than free critical thinking.”This lack of critical thinking can be seen in patents. Over a 20-year period, Saudi Arabia got 171 patents, while South Korea to 16,328 patents.This is a natural result from the research and development funding. Sweden spends 3.1% of its GNP on research, while the Arab states spend 0.2%.Switzerland has 79.9 frequently cited scientific papers per million of citizens. Saudi Arabia has 0.07 frequently cited papers per million of citizens.What that means is that Saudi Arabia published 1 paper that was frequently cited by others.
The thirst for knowledge can be seen in that in the five-year period from 1970-75 only 330 books were translated per year. There have been only 10,00 books translated into Arabic in the last 1200 years.That is less than one book per year over the centuries. As a comparison, Spain translates 10,000 books per year into Spanish. In scientific publications the industrialized nations generate about 6 publications per ten million citizens, while the Arab countries create about 0.1 per ten million citizens.
There is no known indicator that shows even an area of superiority to kafir culture, except one—books published on religion. The world as a whole devotes about 5% of its books to religion, but Arab countries devote 17% of its book publishing to religion. Islamic Arab countries publish 340% more books on religion than kafirs, while, in general, obtaining about 10% of the intellectual results in all other areas.
It is not that the kafir countries are that much better than Muslim countries, but that Islamic nations are so much worse. Islamic intellectual philosophy is to follow Mohammed in a rote, mechanical way and that practice makes for a substandard intellectual competitiveness. Even in religious matters, a Muslim is not supposed to ask difficult questions or challenge the imam.
Arab government effectiveness
The UN report includes a measurement called an “indicator of government effectiveness and corruption”. The indicator uses a few hundred variables that measure perception of governance derived from 25 sources provided by 18 different organizations.
One survey showed that 61% of respondents knew of favoritism and 50% knew of bribery that was used in government during the last year. In addition the leading way to avoid a penalty is favoritism and bribery.
Voice and Accountability is a cluster of indicators measuring civil and political rights. For North America, the indicator is 1.3. The indicator for Arab governments is negative 1.2.This is worse than Africa, usually the bottom of any list.
The Political Stability indicator measures the likelihood of the government being overthrown. The indicator for Europe is 0.7; the Arab states is minus 0.8.
Government Effectiveness measures the quality of services. The index of Government Effectiveness is 1.7 for North America and negative 0.6 for Arab states.
Rule of Law measure the extent to which legal provision enjoy confidence and are adhered to. The indicator for Rule of Law is 1.7 in North American and minus 0.4 for Arab governments.
The Control of Corruption indicator measure the extent of corruption. For North American this indicator is 1.8; for Arab states it is negative 0.4.Only Africa is worse.
None of this corruption and incompetence should be a surprise. Mohammed laid down the ethics and philosophy of government. He was a tribal chief who was an absolute tyrant. He advised others to kill, lie and deceive as a basis for establishment of government. Violence was used to bring others under control. Favors were dispensed for whatever his current needs were. There were complaints as to how he gave money to favorites, including his family. Anyone who opposed him was assassinated. Mohammed used to give money to those he thought would make them lean towards Islam. He used money to buy influence. Why is it surprising that Muslims would use bribery and favoritism as a method of government? Mohammed did it; bribery is Sunna. The fruit does not fall far from the tree.
Human Development
The UN defines human development as making the best use of capabilities and the economic, political and social opportunities that are available. It would make sense that the best of nations would have the greatest human development.
Sociologists use an index, Human Development Index, HDI that measures life expectancy, education, freedom and wealth. The best score is a zero and the lowest score is 100. North America has an HDI of 8 and the Arab states have an HDI of 75.
The UN also uses a Freedom Score to measure political freedom. A value of 1 is best and zero is the worst. North America has a Freedom Score of 0.9 and the Arabs states score is 0.15.
Women
The Arab states have one of the world’s lowest rates of female education. In Arab states “half of the women are illiterate as compared to a third of the men.”“The rate of illiteracy in the Arab world is higher than the world average and higher even than for developing nations.”
The Arab nations have the world’s lowest rate of women earning money, 33%, even lower than Sub-Saharan Africa.
In share of women in parliament, the Arab states are the world’s lower percentage.
All of these results are from the theory of Islam. None are surprising. According to Islam, a woman only has worth in having children and pleasing her husband.
Conclusion
There is no known area of civilization that is measurable that Arabs do not finish either last or next to last. There is a good reason—Islam. Islam’s civilizational doctrine shapes everything. The educational system that creates ignorance, lack of creativity, narrowness, and prejudiced views is based upon Islam. Islamic religious doctrine teaches total submission to the doctrine. Total submission means rote learning. The Hadith forbids questioning. Doctrine teaches that not only is Islam right in all matters, but Islam is all that matters and the kafirs are always wrong and hated by Allah. Learning from kafirs is resisted and done primarily in technology.
Islamic political doctrine is based upon a mass of people who are slaves to the doctrine of political Islam. The slave is the ideal citizen. The Sunna is that Mohammed rose to power with the sword and was an absolute ruler. Out of thousands of pages of source doctrine that teach absolute obedience to the leader, Mohammed, less than a page shows an example of democracy by him consulting with others about decisions. Mohammed spoke and all obeyed.
Koran 2:143 We have made you [Muslims] the best of nations so that you can be witnesses over the world and so that the messenger may be a witness for you.
Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building a Knowledge Society, UN Publications, 2003, pg. 46.
Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building a Knowledge Society, UN Publications, 2003, pg. 51.
Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building a Knowledge Society, UN Publications, 2003, pg. 53.
Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building a Knowledge Society, UN Publications, 2003, pg. 71.
Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building a Knowledge Society, UN Publications, 2003, pg. 73.
Arab Human Development Report 2002, Towards Arab Human Development, UN Publications, 2002, pg. 67.
Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building a Knowledge Society, UN Publications, 2003, pg. 67
Arab Human Development Report 2003: Building a Knowledge Society, UN Publications, 2003, pg. 78.
Arab Human Development Report 2004, Towards Freedom in the Arab World, UN Publications, 2005, pg. 139.
Arab Human Development Report 2004, Towards Freedom in the Arab World, UN Publications, 2005, pg. 140
Arab Human Development Report 2004, Towards Freedom in the Arab World, UN Publications, 2005, pg. 140.
Arab Human Development Report 2004, Towards Freedom in the Arab World, UN Publications, 2005, pg. 140.
Arab Human Development Report 2004, Towards Freedom in the Arab World, UN Publications, 2005, pg. 141.
Arab Human Development Report 2004, Towards Freedom in the Arab World, UN Publications, 2005, pg. 141.
Arab Human Development Report 2002, Towards Arab Human Development, UN Publications, 2002, pg. 22.
Arab Human Development Report 2002, Towards Arab Human Development, UN Publications, 2002, pg. 27.
Arab Human Development Report 2005, Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World, UN Publications, NY, 2006, pg. 74.
Arab Human Development Report 2005, Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World, UN Publications, NY, 2006, pg. 80.
Arab Human Development Report 2005, Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World, UN Publications, NY, 2006, pg. 85.
Arab Human Development Report 2005, Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World, UN Publications, NY, 2006, pg. 95.