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"Arab study cites development blocks" MSNBC article

Kadarin

Lifer
Link to MSNBC article.

I'm interested in knowing if anyone cares to defend Islamic culture, and if so, to please let me know what, if anything, Islamic culture contributes to the betterment of the human condition. Not as a troll.. I'm genuinely interested to see if someone can put forth a good argument.
 
There are millions of people here in the US alone who benefit spiritually from islam. The problem is Islamisists who are hellbent on keeping islam in the dark ages.
 
Originally posted by: Astaroth33
Link to MSNBC article.

I'm interested in knowing if anyone cares to defend Islamic culture, and if so, to please let me know what, if anything, Islamic culture contributes to the betterment of the human condition. Not as a troll.. I'm genuinely interested to see if someone can put forth a good argument.
That study concerned only Arab countries, although it generally does apply to many other Islamic countries. I also say sincerely that there is not one way in which our society is not superior to Arab society. American society is superior to Arab society politically, religiously, culturally, socially, economically, technologically, AND spiritually. I will be happy to address arguments in the morning.
 
Originally posted by: Scipionix
Originally posted by: Astaroth33
Link to MSNBC article.

I'm interested in knowing if anyone cares to defend Islamic culture, and if so, to please let me know what, if anything, Islamic culture contributes to the betterment of the human condition. Not as a troll.. I'm genuinely interested to see if someone can put forth a good argument.
That study concerned only Arab countries, although it generally does apply to many other Islamic countries. I also say sincerely that there is not one way in which our society is not superior to Arab society. American society is superior to Arab society politically, religiously, culturally, socially, economically, technologically, AND spiritually. I will be happy to address arguments in the morning.



You'd first have to define "Arab Society".
 
They discussed the report on Harball yesterday, and it was quite refreshing to hear Arab professors/scholars not blame Israel for all the problems in the Arab world.
 
The countries of the Arab League then.


For the most part then, I would agree with you, with perhaps the exception of egypt, qatar, and kuwait. (and thanks for providing a firm definition of who you were talking about, I wasnt trying to just annoy you. 🙂 )
 
please let me know what, if anything, Islamic culture contributes to the betterment of the human condition.



You could ask yourself the same question about Christianity:

"please let me know what, if anything, Chrisitian culture contributes to the betterment of the human condition."

I'd bet you'd get the same answers for either question.


 
Originally posted by: Lucky For the most part then, I would agree with you, with perhaps the exception of egypt, qatar, and kuwait. (and thanks for providing a firm definition of who you were talking about, I wasnt trying to just annoy you. 🙂 )
Well, the 22 members of the Arab League ARE all the Arab-majority or Arab-ruled (i.e. Sudan) countries. I disagree on Egypt since it is run by a dictator. Jordan might be less bad than the others. The small Gulf states' rulers seem to be realizing that moving toward political and economic freedom is in their own best interests, so places like Bahrain might be improving. But for the rest, it's really bad.
 
Hypothetically speaking, take Iran (non-Arab, but that's possibly beside the point) and remove the Clerics from any real political influence. Then focus on high quality secular education and economic reform, and once you have a larger number of highly educated people in society, institute political reforms (they already elect their president, but the Iranian president is a figurehead compared to the real power as held by the Islamic Clerics). Let this process continue for 10-15 years.

That would be interesting. I personally believe that Islam is holding them back. (And yes, to the person who posted earlier, I also believe that Christianity held the West back by at least 500 years..) In my opinion, religion as a political force is very bad for civilization.
 
Originally posted by: Astaroth33
Hypothetically speaking, take Iran (non-Arab, but that's possibly beside the point) and remove the Clerics from any real political influence. Then focus on high quality secular education and economic reform, and once you have a larger number of highly educated people in society, institute political reforms (they already elect their president, but the Iranian president is a figurehead compared to the real power as held by the Islamic Clerics). Let this process continue for 10-15 years.

That would be interesting. I personally believe that Islam is holding them back. (And yes, to the person who posted earlier, I also believe that Christianity held the West back by at least 500 years..) In my opinion, religion as a political force is very bad for civilization.
The consensus is that there is hope for Iran. Don't kid yourself about their president, he is only moderate in the sense that he is a moderate fundamentalist. Once the people decide to get rid of the ayatollahs (they already want to), they'll do okay. They are culturally and historically distinct from the Arabs though, and they do not have the same 10 ton weight to drag around.
 
Originally posted by: Nefrodite
well they gotta stop lopping off the clits of their women😛 its so sad. keep em ugly and fustrated for life😛
Damn straight, although that's more of an African thing than an Arab thing.
 
Even though this study doesn't explicitly come up with evidence to support the idea, intuitively it makes sense that treating women as second-class citizens (or as pets, or worse) certainly cannot help the situation.
 
Originally posted by: Scipionix
Originally posted by: Nefrodite
well they gotta stop lopping off the clits of their women😛 its so sad. keep em ugly and fustrated for life😛
Damn straight, although that's more of an African thing than an Arab thing.

Nigeria in specific I think. Not many African countries have it, it is some local cultural crap which intermixed with religion, just like Voodoo in parts of Middle-America mixed with Catholicism, and they now pretend some rituals are Catholic. Or for that matter how ancient Christianity mixed with crap and created Catholicism in the first place.
 
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