Tyrone
"What is suprizing, is the continued insistence, of some that it is due to the brand of religion, rather than, the advanced nature of the culture."I tend to disagree with that statement.
So would I as you missed out the 'un' in front of "advanced". But typos aside
The culture itself has been formed by its religion and remains captive to the ideas of it's hierachy.
What, just like ours did and still does to some extent? Okay, so no difference there then (other than a few hundred years head-start).
Would countries that have been rich in oil for the last 100 years not be able to educate its people and catch up with the rest of the world?
Begs the question and ignores history. I suggest you review the information here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iran
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran#Modern_Iran:_From_Pahlavi_to_Islamic_Revolution_.281921_.E2.80.93_1979.29
... yes I know it is only Wikipedia, but I know the details given here are in line with the historical facts.
It shows that oil revenue was never given fairly to Iran, and that Western governments even went as far as staging the removal of a democratically elected secular Prime Minister (who had the cheek to nationalise the oil industry so Iran kept more than a fraction of the profits) and then supporting a puppet king (who wasn't even allowed to check the company accounts of his Western paymasters), whose increasingly despotic government lead to the Islamic revolution.
To put it bluntly, if the West had not acted with such greed we could well have a stable, rich, secular democracy in the heart of the Middle East, serving as an example and a stabilising influence on the region. There's a similar cock-up by the West over Afghanistan; http://www.slate.com/id/2102243/. And I'm sure you know about the West's decade-long support of a despot for oil and strategic reasons in Iraq.
But blaming the Arabs (and Persians) is easier than learning history and accepting Western responsibility...
Another example? Saudi; oil started flowing in 1949, and the West have been happy to ignore the lack of human rights allowed by the undemocratic feudal desoots in power in the country as long as oil kept flowing.
What is the force behind the stagnation of their world veiws.
Er, historically the CIA, MI5, and the French Secret Service, the governments of those countries, and the voters who gave those governments power.
Observe the way scolars are treated ,such as Salmon Rushdie with Fatwah edicts
Yes, indeed, observe how a religious dictatorship (that exists due to Western support of a despot throwing a country back into a religious revolution when they should be having a cultural, industrial and educational one) acts. Observe how scholars that went against the Christian churches dictateshave been treated inthe West, historically (which was, as it were, my point, that we happen to be a few hundred years ahead in terms of cultural and sociological development).
Observe the way the cultures behave over a cartoon depiction and beheadings of people that in any way disagree with them.
Observe how, historically (which is the point I was making ) people acted in the West to what they saw as blasphemy, and how they killed people who disagreed with them.
To any greater or lesser extent, any religion can stagnate growth, both emotionally and intellectually.
Ah, but culture is not expressed by religion. Religion is expressed by culture.
Has the de facto assumed religion of the West changed in 200 years? No.
Have views regarding freedom of speech, women's rights, beating children, racial equality, the Death sentence and ethical conduct changed in the West in 200 years? Yes.
Our culture expresses our traditional religious values in a way consonant with the culture; no more Bible mandated misogyny, slavery, ethnic cleansing or wars to force mass importation of Opium (all of which the West has done in the past 200 years). Such things are now unacceptable to the vast majority of people in our culture, be they nominal Christian or otherwise, even thought they'd be meat-and-potatoes to Christians of previous generations..
Islam can be as a liberal as Christianity. We have retarded the process through our greed for oil. And 'we' the West should have known better; the Middle East is the more primative culture, after all.
What exactly are you saying, that we are genetically superior?
Read what I say! How twisted can you be to insert 'genetics' where I say 'culture'. Behave.
Seriously; do you think your great-great-great grandfather (as culturally advanced as many Arab's grandfathers or fathers) would suddenly change his mind about tolerance to other religions, women's suffrage and rights, whether beating children (and your wife) was okay, over racial equality and the morality of slavery or Imperialism towards indigenous people because you gave him a copy of Amnesty International Magazine, told him that's how it has to be, and gave him a pair of Nikes and a mobile phone? No, of course he wouldn't change his mind.
Cultural change is a generational thing. And we are retarding it further by making the next generation hate us in the West and therefore be attracted to what stands against us, no matter how retarded and backward that thing might be.
What we need to do is help those people who forced the West to give them equal rights. We need to help the women of the Arab world.