The Impending End of Islam: Danger

[JStone]

Islamic Scholar Bernard Lewis, "The Crisis of Islam"

Almost the entire Muslim world is affected by poverty and tyranny. The combinatoin of low productivity and high birth rate in the Middle East makes for an untenable mix, with a large and rapidly growing population of unemployed, uneducated and frustrated young men. By all indicators from the United Nations, the World Bank and other authorities, the Arab countries--in matters such as job creation, education, technology and productivity--lag further behind the West. Even worse, the Arab nations also lag behind the more recent recruits to Western-style democracy, such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

The comparative figures on the performance of Muslim countries, as reflected in these statistics, are devastating.

In the listing of economies by gross domestic product, the highest ranking Muslim majority country is Turkey, with 64 million inhabitants, in 23rd place, between Austria and Denmark, with about 5 million each. The next is Indonesia, with 212 million, in 28th place, following Norway with 4.5 million and followed by Saudi Arabia with 21 million. In comparative purchasing power, the first Muslim state is Indonesia in 15th place followed by Turkey in 19th place. In living standards as reflected by gross domestic product per head, the first Muslim state is Qatar, in 23rd place, followed by the United Arab Emirates in 23rd place and Kuwait in 28th.

In a listing of industrial output, the highest-ranking Muslim country is Saudi Arabia, number 21, followed by Indonesia, tied with Austria and Belgium in 22nd place and Turkey, tied with Norway in 27th place.

In a listing by manufacturing output, the highest ranking Arab country is Egypt, in 35th place, tying with Norway.

In a listing of life expectancy, the first Arab state is Kuwait, in 32nd place. In ownership of telephone lines per hundred people, the first Muslim country listed is the UAE in 33rd place. In ownership of computers per hundred people, the first Muslim state listed is Bahrain in 30th place.

Book sales present an even more dismal picture. A listing of 27 countries, beginning with the United States and ending with Viet Nam, does not include a single Muslim state. In a human development index, Brunei is number 32, Kuwait 36, Bahrain 40, Qatar 41, the UAE 44, Libya 66 and Saudi Arabia 68.

According to a report on Arab Human Development prepared by a committee of Arab intellectualss, reveals, "the Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one-fifth of the number that Greece translates. The total of translated books since the 9th century is about 100,000, almost the average that Spain translates in one year.

The economic situation is no better. "The GDP in all Arab countries combined stood at $531 billion in 1999---less than that of a single European country, Spain [$595 billion]
The Crisis of Islam by Bernard Lewis - Book - eBook - Audiobook - Random House