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Old March 23, 2004, 07:33 PM
Ockey Ockey is offline
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Join Date: June 20, 2002
Posts: 241
Default Solution to our problems..

Increased literacy is all well and good and is probably the solution to most of the problems in third world countries but one really has to examine why things have gotten to where they are in mostly Muslim countries. Does anyone have any theories that they have read about or that they have formulated?

One theory that I'd like to propose is that the oldest Muslim cultures in the Middle East are what they are today because centuries ago they decided to close themselves off to other cultures and have formed a very puritanical form of Islam either for reason's of survival or for recognition. This form of Islam has transpired into intolerance and discrimination and has flourished till this day mainly because [start edit] other Muslims have not argued against it. The reasons being a) the geographic location of the Middle East and its proximity to the three holiest Islamic cities b) Arabic is a language spoken by the people of the ME and the Quran is written in Arabic and hence they are perceived to have the proper interpretation of the Book c) the financial leverage that the Arab nations have had of late on other Muslim nations after the discovery of huge reserves of oil. [end edit]

As for the other parts of the world, such as Africa, South and East Asia, where Islam was spread mostly through conquest, these nations have recently been given independence from imperialism and if given time, they will get their affairs in order. Having said that, a lot of the damage has been done by the Islamic teachings spread from the Middle East; and given the rate of illetaracy in the population Islam spread at it was preached by the Mullas. Because Islam is perceived to be a religion that is protected by God and cannot be changed, no one has really challanged the different schools of thoughts that are out there. Everyone believes their interpretation of Islam is right.


[Edited on 24-3-2004 by Ockey]
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