Will middle east ever evolve out of the middle ages mentality and choose to join us in the 21st century?

Question

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/01/mideast.blair/index.html

see above link for tony blaire's comment

mark's comment---I agree there were great islamic contributions CENTURIES ago....however they choose to regress rather than progress.

hotbabe's comment - We don't give a damn about Iraq's oil we there to protect our own domestic security by deafting the terrorists. Once this is accomplished we would rebuild the infrastructure and help Iraq to become democratic and capatilistic society that would be a powerful force for good in its sphere of influance. The terorists prefer to destory subvert and kill there own people and buildings to prevent any progress.

Answer 1

Actually, the question should be re-phrased as:

Will the Arabs ever evolve out of their atavistic tribalism and join us in at least the 20th century???

I think they will... eventually. But it's going to be an awful damn long time by the looks of it....

Edit:

Mr_Curious:

You are dead wrong; nothing is written in stone, the Arabs can change if they choose to do so. And I think your joke is completely out of place in a serious discussion...

donna_c & bytheway:

Kindly take your spineless, cowardly "anything goes" cultural relativism and shove it up your a**. No amount of sophistry is ever going to convince me that stoning young women for simply looking at a young man is all right, or that slicing the clitoris off an 11-yr old girl is "OK in their world...", or that brainwashing otherwise normal young men & women into thinking that it is not only OK, but f***ing heroic to strap on 30 pounds of explosives and blow up 20 or 30 women & children on a bus is f***ing defensible!

*deep breath*

When I am in their countries I will cheerfully trade in my cold beer for some coffee and a hookah; I will respect their wish to not see images of Allah or the Prophet; I will, overall, respect as many of their customs & practices as I am able to...

But I will NOT meekly nod my head & look the other way as they violate basic principles of human decency and compassion, especially not in the name of a timid, morally bankrupt and cowardly "philosophy".

Answer 2

Yes, we all wonder that - but there is one thing I have never been able to understand.

I have been to Israel on many occasions and have spoken to hundreds of Israeli's.

They have had suicide bombers, car bombs, rockets and all sorts of attacks on them from their neighbours - not just recently, but since Israel was formed in 1948.

And unbelievably, they don't hate anyone!

They really don't.

They don't hate the Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqi's, Iranians - they don't hate anyone.

All they want to do is live peacefully, they have so much knowledge to share that they would help all of the Middle East. But no, they are not allowed to.

So after putting up with the rockets, bombs etc for a few years, they decide they will have to do something about it - and so would any other nation in the world.

No one could put up with the type of things they are having to put up with.

But if the Arabs one day decide to stop trying to kill - they will find just how helpful and friendly Israel can really be.

Yes, I know someone will now answer this with something like "It's all Israel's fault. They should give back the land they took in 1967." But please remember, they took that land for one reason only. For their security - to stop the rockets etc coming from there.

Hey - let's stop throwing bricks at each other and give love a chance.

Answer 3

Never. The choice was made anciently to refuse to advance along with the rest of the civilized world and for that reason they will ALWAYS behind civilized nations in terms of technology, human rights, women's rights, freedoms, and enlightenment. They are still living in the 1400s and not much has changed.


Incidentally, why don't they teach sex education and driver's training on the same days in Middle Eastern high schools?






The camels get too sore.

Answer 4

as quickly as I pay attention human beings say Israel is the only democracy interior the midsection east, I ought to snigger at their lack of understanding. Israel is a rather modern-day ecu/American Apartheid settler undertaking occupying the country of yet another human beings, and stored artificially alive with the might of yank defense force ability. Iran is the only democracy interior the midsection east. Iran is seen via many between the cradles of civilization with a lifestyle and historic previous hundreds of years previous. they have judicial, govt and legislative branches. They decide for a president each 4 years (sound widespread?) they have a remarkable chief this is elected and oversees the judiciary. The legislative branch has 290 individuals, elected for 4-twelve months words.

Answer 5

they have their own mentality and their own values...who's to say which is better? When it comes to culture intelligent and educated people try to keep a more objective perspective, not an ethnocentric one, also, not all middle eastern people are terrorist or support violent terroristic activities (that is a wrong generalization):
"Ethnocentrism is a way of making judgments that leads us to make false assumptions about cultural differences. We are ethnocentric when we use our cultural norms to make generalizations about other peoples' cultures and customs. Such generalizations -- often made without a conscious awareness that we've used our culture as a universal yardstick -- can be way off base and cause us to misjudge other peoples. Ethnocentrism also distorts communication between human beings."

gibbs303: why are you going psycho over someone's else's opinion? Yes, they should learn the values of our country right?? As if we don't have the death penalty, as if we don't have the largest percentage of our population in prison, as if we have a perfectly free society...when as far as the ranking of journalistic freedom the USA ranks as 32 in the world....hmm, yes the US is absolutely perfect....so perfect that tons of men turn into pedophiles and rapists ...the highest incidence of these sicknesses in the world...so much that american psychological research has become one of the leading sources of information on pedophilia!! So...why don't you worry about YOUR CULTURE, before going apesh*t over someone elses?
And as far as genital mutilation is concerned of course that is wrong, but if you were educated enough, you would know that it is not a practice that is widespread in the middle east...certain villages and areas practice that...so get your sh*t straight before blowing off your repressed steam online....how pathetic. Just like not all americans are KKK members that want to burn african americans.
all soceties and cultures have their unacceptable practices...that doesn't make one superior to the other and it certainly doesn't justify one invading another.

Answer 6

,Islam rolled across Syria and Palestine, across Egypt, across the long sweep of the African coast all the way to the Atlantic. And then in the early 700s it crossed into Spain, and moved under momentum of its enormous power all the way up into central France. There Islam was turned back by a German-Christian rally that spared the rest of Western Europe from Arab rule. The Muslims had finally come up against a Christian people who were deeply committed to their Christian moral-religious legacy. Consequently, Islam had to content itself with holding only Spain in the West--and even that got chipped away at slowly over the years by a Christian "reconquest" or crusade to restore Western Europe to Christ

Answer 7

Why people have to lie or tell part of the story in order to make their point.
Islamic civilization is based on the freedom that God gave mankind where Muslims 1400 years ago were able to think freely about every issue that relate to human life.1400 years ago the world was living
in darkness. 1400 years ago, there were Islamic universities where most scientific subject was taught.
"Say: we believe in God and in what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il: Isaac, Jacob and The Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus and the Prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another, among them, and to God do we bow our will (in Islam)." (Qur'an, Al-Imran 3:84)

Answer 8

Will America (& Americans) stop thinking they know everything about the world and try to be a part of the world, before they start making comments, start dropping bombs, start invading countries.

Answer 9

Look at Qutar. They are not on the periphery any more. But with all of the religious connotations with the middle east it seems they have more difficulty moving ahead.

Answer 10

Only when they remove the oppresive yoke of theocratic governments will they join us. They're about 500 years behind the curve, but they'll get here someday (they really have no choice).