Keith,
I thank you for the enclosed article. It seems well written. The
paragraph below is also quite accurate:
Trade and freedom go hand in hand. In the 15th century the Muslim
Middle
East was not only as economically developed as Europe but was
also a
vigorous liberal society which allowed the Christian church and
the Jewish
faith to practise and whose scholars introduced Greek philosophy
and Indian
mathematics into Europe.
Re your paragraph below, it puts too much credence in the limits of Islam
and places too little emphasis on the colonialism perpetrated by the west
on the Middle East. Without having to put too much focus on Stephen
Kinzer's explanation of the toppling of Mohendes Mosadeq and bringing
back the Shah by the Dulles brothers, long distance shipping could be
seen as a factor. The Crusades, the rise of the Moghul empire, the 400
capture of the Arabs by the barbaric Ottoman Turks [Turks still are able
to be pretty barbaric nowadays with the Turks and other minorities in
their own country], the division of the Arab World by the bloody English
['ere used more as an active participle than as a term of endearment -
Israel still uses British law in Palestine for obvious reasons] and the
French [the French captured the best wine producing areas and paid the
price], by the rise of a neocolonial state in the area previously known
as Palestine, the cutting through Egypt with a canal designed to benefit
Europeans all are factors which seem to lead you to equate trade, the
WTO, and colonial imperialism [see your final paragraph below with
progress.
However, as European merchants pulled ahead of Muslim merchants
for reasons
to do with differences in theological laws of inheritance, and
short-circuited the
Mediterranean in their trade with China and Asia, then Muslim
society began its
long decline into the reactionary, illiberal society that
characterises so many
Islamic countries today.
If I were a resident of one of these illiberal societies not only would I
be reactionary, I would be royally pissed.
The cultural chasm between western society and Islamic countries
seems to
me to be so wide that it can never be bridged by political
methods -- or at
least it will take generations. It seems to me that the only
possible
solution will be to encourage trade by all means possible. The
next round
of talks of the World Trade Organisation in Cancun, Mexico, could
do more
for peace between the west and the Islamic countries than all the
efforts
of politicians -- not that they meet very often. Until then, it
looks as
though the Islamic countries will be locked in reactionary mode
-- as Iran
and Saudi Arabia are today. They both trade oil with the west but
this is
about the only product and involves too little interface. Many
more
products need to be traded so that innovations and liberal ideas
can more
easily diffuse across borders.
I am not sure that Brittany Spears records will bridge the difference.
Bill
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