The Arab World is corrupt and in squalor

            The reasons for today’s squalor and corruption in the Arab world are primarily moral and cultural. After the brief flourishing that happened in spite of Islam (rather than because of it), the region’s history has been that of a long decline without a fall. Always reliant on the plunder of its neighbors and robbery of its non-Muslim subjects, Islam was unable to create new wealth once the conquerors had run out of steam and reduced the vanquished to utter penury. Pre-Islamic Egypt, like the pre- Communist Ukraine, was the granary of Europe; now, both must import food. Pre-Islamic Syria and Asia Minor suffered under Caliph Umar a fate similar to that of highly developed and prosperous East Germany and Czechoslovakia after 1945, when the Communist controlled them. In both cases, the dominant ideology – Islam or communism – opposed the preconditions for successful economic development in principle as well as in practice.

            Not even a prime location at the crossroads of the world could counter the slow poison of obscurantism. The nature of the problem has always been spiritual. Like all totalitarian ideologies, Islam has an inherent tendency to the closing of the mind. The spirit of critical inquiry essential to the growth of knowledge is completely alien to it. When, in the 19^th century, the Muslim world realized that something was seriously wrong, its view of knowledge remained nevertheless that of a commodity to be imported and used. Western engineers, military officers, and doctors could train their Muslim students, but the latter never managed to give more than was imparted to them, even today in the oil industry.

            The problem remains insoluble to this day, the Arabs want some of the fruit of Western culture – stock markets, efficient bureaucracies, reliable banks – but they cannot import the culture itself, even if they wished to do so. The developed world’s discipline, cohesion, ingenuity, and prosperity are rooted in those aspects of the Western psyche that cannot be easily transplanted. Instant gratification – inherent to the Muslim mind-set ever since Muhammad resorted to divine intervention in his lust for his daughter-in-law – is odious to the European and Oriental psyche alike; hence, Asian “tigers” prosper, whereas Arabs do not.

            There are symphony orchestras in Singapore, Seoul and Beijing, but none in Amman, Ramallah, or Beirut. If and when more people grasp the significance of that fact, they may be ready to see the necessity of fighting off the plundering Muslims and their economic, political and cultural failures.