Before the advent of Islam in the 7th century AD, the area that is currently geographically named the "Middle East" basically consisted of different and well developed cultures spread out over Persia (Iran, Iraq etc.), The Levant (Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria etc.), North Africa (Egypt, Algeria etc.), Turkey and regions around the Mediterranean. They were all traveling/learning to/from the rest of the World and disseminating knowledge throughout their areas of commerce/influence. When Europe was backward in the doldrums under the anti-scientific/anti-knowledge influence of the Christian Church these pre-Islamic cultures collected, maintained and developed forgotten knowledge from Greek/Indian/Chinese/Other sources.
Then Islam happened and everything started going downhill slowly at first and then accelerating as Europe threw off the Christian Church's yoke and stepped into enlightenment thus increasing the knowledge gap. The so-called "Islamic Golden Age" is nothing more than these populations still preserving and developing knowledge in spite of Islam for a few generations when Islamic orthodoxy had not yet gained full ascendancy over the minds of these cultures. But once Islamic orthodoxy was imposed by the sword on the populations of these cultures, all striving towards scientific knowledge ceased and they were doomed, the results of which we see today.
Note that even after European Colonialism was thrown off, while other non-Islamic countries (notably India/China) have made great scientific progress, almost all current-day Islamic countries are going nowhere. Their record of scientific development, social reforms etc. is abysmal and they seem to not realize that it is their own belief system which is holding them back. Their only hope is to change Islam so it fits in better with the Modern World.
PS: Dr. Jamshed Uppal made a presentation with survey data across Islamic countries titled Are Muslim Attitudes Tuned For Economic Progress? (the data is a shocking and definitive no) but the video seems to have been removed from Youtube - https://theblackhole.pk/event/are-muslim-attitudes-tuned-for...
In this session, Dr. Jamshed Uppal explores how socio-religious attitudes and practices affect economic outcomes in Muslim majority countries. Drawing on World Values Survey data for 66 countries, he examines eight categories of attitudes that are conducive to economic growth, including attitude towards trust; towards government institutions; towards women; towards legal norms; towards markets; towards science; towards violence, and towards financial institutions. Through econometric techniques, he shows that religious values do significantly influence economic attitudes, with a milder degree of religiosity being growth conducive, but stronger forms of religiosity leading to growth retarding economic attitudes.
Before the advent of Islam in the 7th century AD, the area that is currently geographically named the "Middle East" basically consisted of different and well developed cultures spread out over Persia (Iran, Iraq etc.), The Levant (Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Syria etc.), North Africa (Egypt, Algeria etc.), Turkey and regions around the Mediterranean. They were all traveling/learning to/from the rest of the World and disseminating knowledge throughout their areas of commerce/influence. When Europe was backward in the doldrums under the anti-scientific/anti-knowledge influence of the Christian Church these pre-Islamic cultures collected, maintained and developed forgotten knowledge from Greek/Indian/Chinese/Other sources.
Then Islam happened and everything started going downhill slowly at first and then accelerating as Europe threw off the Christian Church's yoke and stepped into enlightenment thus increasing the knowledge gap. The so-called "Islamic Golden Age" is nothing more than these populations still preserving and developing knowledge in spite of Islam for a few generations when Islamic orthodoxy had not yet gained full ascendancy over the minds of these cultures. But once Islamic orthodoxy was imposed by the sword on the populations of these cultures, all striving towards scientific knowledge ceased and they were doomed, the results of which we see today.
Note that even after European Colonialism was thrown off, while other non-Islamic countries (notably India/China) have made great scientific progress, almost all current-day Islamic countries are going nowhere. Their record of scientific development, social reforms etc. is abysmal and they seem to not realize that it is their own belief system which is holding them back. Their only hope is to change Islam so it fits in better with the Modern World.
PS: Dr. Jamshed Uppal made a presentation with survey data across Islamic countries titled Are Muslim Attitudes Tuned For Economic Progress? (the data is a shocking and definitive no) but the video seems to have been removed from Youtube - https://theblackhole.pk/event/are-muslim-attitudes-tuned-for...
In this session, Dr. Jamshed Uppal explores how socio-religious attitudes and practices affect economic outcomes in Muslim majority countries. Drawing on World Values Survey data for 66 countries, he examines eight categories of attitudes that are conducive to economic growth, including attitude towards trust; towards government institutions; towards women; towards legal norms; towards markets; towards science; towards violence, and towards financial institutions. Through econometric techniques, he shows that religious values do significantly influence economic attitudes, with a milder degree of religiosity being growth conducive, but stronger forms of religiosity leading to growth retarding economic attitudes.