issuevoter wrote on Apr 8
th, 2017 at 8:14am:
If Islam creates terrorism, why is this so?
Until the Western world required oil, Islam was a backwater of progress. It was not the automobile or power stations that created this thirst for oil, at first. It was when the navies of the world converted their ships from coal fired boilers to oil, around 1900.
But the West was still largely under the thumb of aristocratic clans with their monarchs and princes claiming the sanction of religion. Public education and disemination of printed information set social progress on its way about the same time.
In the West, these changes tended to be attitudes and perceptions that could be traced back through the Enlightenment all the way to the Italian Renaissance.
Had oil not been in the equation, Islam might have remained a great sea of ignorance and superstition, but oil brought the Middle East into the West's sphere of influence. Centres closer to this influence began to liberalise, Turkey being the best example. But this did not sit well with conservative religionists who felt threatened by change.
Islam has to face every day knowing it is still effectively a backwater, and terrorism is the manifestation of this frustration. But to liberalise, it would require admitting their cultural inferiority. And so they cling to the idea that they are the keepers of some great cosmic truth handed to them by God.
A good post, Issue, but you're speaking solely of the Arab world, not the Muslim world, which was built many years before 1900 on trade, not oil.
Persia was the nexus between east and west, Europe and China. Sultanates along the silk road held a large bulk of the world's wealth, through taxation. The "Muslim world" secured the route, not only policing and defending travellers from bandits, it gave them wells and comfortable, air-cooled rest houses. Persian rulers were largely pragmatic, benefiting from the spoils of trade. All belief systems were tolerated. In Shiraz, Christians made and exported wine while Muslims traded sultanas - a nice little earner on the spice trade.
While European kingdoms were struggling to get in on this trade, Muslim rulers in places like India were exporting the pepper, cardamom and cinamon. Muslims in Java and Sumatra produced the world's cloves and nutmeg. Like travellers today, Western explorers couldn't believe the wealth in these regions and how well they ate. And not just food, but manufactured goods: woodwork, tiles, textiles. Christopher Columbus, remember, was not looking for America, but India.
The Arabian peninsular was probably one of the least populated Muslim regions, and in geopolitical terms, off the beaten track. It might have spawned Islam, but Islam grew, and largely through trade. Another Muslim benefit was Islamic medicine, its success assisting in converting a number of rulers in Africa and the East Indies.The Enlightenment you described saw the West surpass the Muslim world in surgery and medicine, along with plenty of other things - like military technology.
In reality, the "Muslim world" could not accurately be described as a world at all. The Persians, Ottomans, Moors, Moguls, Javans,, etc - and all the rest - were never united. Like Christian Europe, there were wars and alliances and rival factions.
But Arabia has only ever been one part of this world, and energy (oil) is only a short, if important, chapter of the story.
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