Arab Muslim Crisis: Things Are Really Bad In Backward Arab Muslim Worlds

[JStone]

Al-Ahram: Arab Human Development Crisis

While the information revolution is proceeding elsewhere apace, the Arab world is falling behind, held back by government failure

When the first Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) was published in 2002, a star glistened in a vast, gloomy sky. The fact that a UN sponsored report, authored by independent Arab scholars, received so much attention in the Arab media was in itself a promising start. That such terminology as "human security", "personal security", "economic security", etc -- as highlighted in the report -- would compete with largely ceremonial news bulletin headlines in many Arab countries was an achievement. But then the star faded, the terms became clichés, and the report -- updated seven times since then -- became a haunting reminder of how bad things really are in the Arab world.

The last report sponsored, like the rest, by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) was published in July 2009. It is the grimmest. Its statistics are intriguing, although depressing. Some 2.9 million square kilometres of land in the Arab world is threatened by desertification. Natural resources are depleting at an alarming level. Birth rates are the highest in the world. Unemployment is skyrocketing. Some 50 million new jobs must be created by 2020. Arab oil- based economies leave some Arab countries entirely vulnerable to market price fluctuations or the depletion of oil altogether. While many economies, especially in Asia are shifting or have already achieved great strides into becoming knowledge-based economies, Arab economies are still hostage to the same cycle of oil and cheap labour. In fact, 70 per cent of the Arab region's total exports -- according to the report -- is oil.

The problem is not just economic, or environmental, it's societal as well. Inequality is entrenched in many Arab societies. Women's rights are not the only individual rights violated. Men's rights are violated too, that is if they are not members of the dominant group, which is divided into blind political allegiance, tribal or sectarian membership, or economic leverage.

Admittedly, Arab societies are not the only societies that suffer from these ills, but sadly the problems of Arab countries are the most convoluted, accentuated by the fact that there is little action to rectify the problem -- neither at the individual country level nor using joint platforms like the Arab League. Why didn't the Arab League hold an emergency summit following the release of the first or even the last AHDR report? One would think that problems of such magnitude, ones that affect the lives of 330 million people, are pressing enough for such gatherings.

The UNDP recently launched "The Arab Knowledge Report 2009" jointly with the United Arab Emirates-based Mohamed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Foundation. Another depressing read. Governments were criticised for paying lip service to reform yet "widening the gap between word and deed". It concluded that Arab countries are far from being knowledge-based societies. Numbers and more numbers told the story: Finland spends $1,000 per person on scientific research, while less than $10 is spent annually in the Arab world. The number of published books averages one for every 491 British citizens, while in the Arab world it's one for every 19,150. But that should not be much of a surprise considering that one-third of older Arab citizens is illiterate, two-thirds of which are women. Meanwhile, more than seven million children who should be in school are not. Illiteracy stands at 30 per cent in the Arab world.

Arab governments must rethink and reconsider their current priorities and course of action. They must think and act individually, but collectively as well, before the crisis turns into a catastrophe, as will surely be the case if nothing is done.
Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Arab human development crisis

Winston Churchill...

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.

No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.
Amazon.com: The River War (9781598184259): Sir Winston S. Churchill: Books