Israel has good universities and has research output comparable to European/NA countries.
The author is also including in Contemporary Islam, SEA countries like Malaysia.
He also discusses Pakistan and ancient Indian civilizations as separate entities, which have geographical overlap, because Pakistan (and Bangladesh) is far behind India in terms of research productivity.
Israel does not have successful academic institutions because of the US. They built it themselves.
The theory that the US "does not allow" the establishment of academic institutions in Islamic countries is equally wrong.
edit - There is a common attitude among Arabs (evident in this poster's comments in this thread) that everything bad in Arab countries is due to some combination of the US and Israel. One of my teachers, a Jordanian, told me how his father would poke fun at this attitude: when something in the house would break, his father would ironically blame Israel for it.
American foreign policy in the Arab world is complicated. It seems to me that many Arab countries oscillate between Islamist democracies and secular dictatorships. The US prefers the latter to the former. I think it's fair to criticize this stance but my sense is that the US would support a secular democracy, were it possible. The Obama administration supported the secular opposition to Assad...but it has turned out that the biggest faction of the Syrian opposition are Sunnis motivated by Islamism, hence America backing away from Syria.
Jewish culture has always had a deep respect for and encouragement of intellectual development. The Islamic world may have had that in the past but it's been heavily suppressed by the spread and rise to power and influence of more extreme and rigid forms of that belief system. In Israel, if the extreme orthodox were in charge or had as much influence as extreme Islam, you'd probably find suppression of intellectual development.
You missed my point. I am not talking about who built it. I am saying that the US doesn't allow true democracy in the Middle East which should be followed by scientific development.
> There is a common attitude among Arabs (evident in this poster's comments in this thread) that everything bad in Arab countries is due to some combination of the US and Israel. One of my teachers, a Jordanian, told me how his father would poke fun at this attitude: when something in the house would break, his father would ironically blame Israel for it.
To prove that your arrogant comment is wrong: I didn't mention that Israel is responsible for anything, I was mainly talking about the US. And I didn't say that all of the problems caused by them.
If the Arab nations decided to embrace science education and to industrialise their economies there's nothing the USA or Europe could, or would want to do to stop it. In fact the West would gleefully sell them the technical know how and equipment needed to do it. After all, they even did the same for Communist China.
> If the Arab nations decided to embrace science education and to industrialise their economies there's nothing the USA or Europe could, or would want to do to stop it.
Agree. But to be fair, not all is rosy. Israel has been signaled as the responsible of serial killings of scientists "of interest" in other countries.
This means that we have less people in the planet able to find a solution for the problem of managing nuclear residues, for example. Something that would have greatly benefited Israel itself.
And there are more than 300 cases of teachers being kidnapped, tortured and/or assasinated by US army (or other agents).
The idea of a country systematically killing 320 academics in Occident would be clearly seen as something atrocious. This should be treated exactly the same by international organisms.
Even if that would be true (that US supported that coup), would the democratically elected Mohamed Morsi have promoted science education in Egypt? The Muslim Brotherhood's history of science education doesn't seem so rosy.
Will take my time reading this. But will tell you my opinion.
No, I don't think the MBH would accept ALL the results of science. But I do think they would have made what they could to make the education system better.
But again this is not the point, What about after the MBH? Maybe someone else would came to establish a better system. But now it is all gone. No real elections, and no peaceful transfer of power.
The US has no say in the internal politics of Egypt, or any Arab countries. The most the West can do is stand by watching in horror, wringing our hands. When we do get mired in it, as with Iraq, the limits of our actual ability to direct change becomes painfully apparent very quickly.
The west, the most powerful civilization in history, stand by watching in horror. Are you serious?
I don't have links or videos saved with me right now, but I am an Egyptian and followed all of what happened. I can get it if I wanted, but it will take time. But I think you can easily find it. Listen to professor Chomsky's lectures for example.
Even "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" was joking about how Obama didn't admit the coup to keep giving them aid, but I also don't have the link of the episode here.
So I think it is obvious if you wanted to see it. But pick your opinion as you wish. It is a free world, right?
Ive seen that one already, and just listened to some of it again s a quick refresher.
Chomsky does accuse the US government of not wanting a democratic government in Egypt, but doesn't actually blame them for the failure of the Morsi government. Instead he blames his friends in the left Liberal movement of Egypt for supporting the Military coup.
As for Obama fudging the question of whether it was a coup, that's exactly the useless after the fact hand-wringing I'm talking about. At that point the coup was a done deal.
It may even be true that western leaders prefer to deal with Middle Eastern autocrats, but (a) when given the opportunity that's not what they set up in Iraq. And (b) they don't actually get to decide who rules any Arab countries anyway. Even in Iraq which they conquered, because they handed that decision over to the electorate.
I know that there are a lot of people in the west who are honest about their values. But we don't see that at all from the governments. So don't blame us thinking that the US never cared about their values.
I didn't talk about the failure of the Morsi government, that is highly controversial.
I am saying that they supported the coup before it even happens. They communicated with the military before the coup, giving them the green light to do it.
As I said, I didn't save the sources, but I know what I have read. But I can't ask you to believe me in that case.
The author is also including in Contemporary Islam, SEA countries like Malaysia.
He also discusses Pakistan and ancient Indian civilizations as separate entities, which have geographical overlap, because Pakistan (and Bangladesh) is far behind India in terms of research productivity.