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I got this via email sorry i dont have a source.

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Why are Muslims so powerless?


There are an estimated 1,476,233,470 Muslims on the face of the planet: one billion in Asia, 400 million in Africa, 44 million in Europe and six million in the Americas. Every fifth human being is a Muslim; for every single Hindu there are two Muslims, for every Buddhist there are two Muslims and for every Jew there are one hundred Muslims. Ever wondered why Muslims are so powerless?

Here is why: There are 57 member-countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), and all of them put together have around 500 universities; one university for every three million Muslims. The United States has 5,758 universities and India has 8,407. In 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong University compiled an 'Academic Ranking of World Universities', and intriguingly, not one university from Muslim-majority states was in the top-500. As per data collected by the UNDP, literacy in the Christian world stands at nearly 90 per cent and 15 Christian-majority states have a literacy rate of 100 per cent. A Muslim-majority state, as a sharp contrast, has an average literacy rate of around 40 per cent and there is no Muslim-majority state with a literacy rate of 100 per cent. Some 98 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world had completed primary school, while less than 50 per cent of the 'literates' in the Muslim world did the same. Around 40 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world attended university while no more than two per cent of the 'literates' in the Muslim world did the same. Muslim-majority countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims. The US has 4,000 scientists per million and Japan has 5,000 per million. In the entire Arab world, the total number of full-time researchers is 35,000 and there are only 50 technicians per one million Arabs (in the Christian world there are up to 1,000 technicians per one million). Furthermore, the Muslim world spends 0.2 per cent of its GDP on research and development, while the Christian world spends around five per cent of its GDP. Conclusion: The Muslim world lacks the capacity to produce knowledge. Daily newspapers per 1,000 people and number of book titles per million are two indicators of whether knowledge is being diffused in a society. In Pakistan, there are 23 daily newspapers per 1,000 Pakistanis while the same ratio in Singapore is 360. In the UK, the number of book titles per million stands at 2,000 while the same in Egypt is 20. Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to diffuse knowledge.
Exports of high technology products as a percentage of total exports are an important indicator of knowledge application. Pakistan's exports of high technology products as a percentage of total exports stands at one per cent. The same for Saudi Arabia is 0.3 per cent; Kuwait, Morocco, and Algeria are all at 0.3 per cent while Singapore is at 58 per cent. Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to apply knowledge. Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren't producing knowledge. Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren't diffusing knowledge. Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren't applying knowledge. And, the future belongs to knowledge-based societies.
Interestingly, the combined annual GDP of 57 OIC-countries is under $2 trillion. America, just by herself, produces goods and services worth $12 trillion; China $8 trillion, Japan $3.8 trillion and Germany $2.4 trillion (purchasing power parity basis).
Oil rich Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar collectively produce goods and services (mostly oil) worth $500 billion; Spain alone produces goods and services worth over $1 trillion, Catholic Poland $489 billion and Buddhist Thailand $545 billion (Muslim GDP as a percentage of world GDP is fast declining).

So, why are Muslims so powerless? Answer: Lack of education.

That is very interesting and sad at the same time.

Kind of funny.....about 6 month ago there was a post "Why are Jews so powerful"
"I responded that Jews believe in education and Muslims don't."
One of the moderators deleted my response saying it was offensive.

I could see how it could be offensive...but Im not offended. There are worse things being said on here.


but i do have a question. when muslims are mentioned in the origional post...is it referring to arab muslims, or muslims in general?

Lack of education is the root cause of many problems on this planet.

As Derek Bok (the former president of Harvard) said:
If you think education is expensive, try ingnorance

mraph33 wrote:Kind of funny.....about 6 month ago there was a post "Why are Jews so powerful"
"I responded that Jews believe in education and Muslims don't."
One of the moderators deleted my response saying it was offensive.

jews rule the world
they are smart and stick together

mraph33 wrote:Kind of funny.....about 6 month ago there was a post "Why are Jews so powerful"
"I responded that Jews believe in education and Muslims don't."
One of the moderators deleted my response saying it was offensive.

That is offensive.

You are suggestnig Muslims lack motivation for education. It could be that they are not getting the opportunities.

it is sad when we have the Prophet (PBUH) saying “Seeking knowledge is a mandate for every Muslim (male and female).”... yet there is so much ignorance a mong us

mema wrote:it is sad when we have the Prophet (PBUH) saying “Seeking knowledge is a mandate for every Muslim (male and female).”... yet there is so much ignorance a mong us

yes true
so get thsoe books out and start studying you arab!

I guess this article lacks basic facts. Indiais home of second largest muslim pop. Not long ago I posted an article named Muslim malaise written by editor of Toronto Star which clearly states the reason why Muslim world is backward. Some of the reasons can be attributed to leaders of the country who are corrupt and autoritarian. Most of the muslim countries were former colonial countires which gained independence just recently. The infrastructure and literacy was quite bad at the time of independence in most countries.It's not bcos Muslims dont want any education it's bcos most cant afford it and are poor. Things are changing in Malaysia and Kazakathan. They are now investing on universities and local industries. Most of the muslim nations are populous which may take time to develop the human resources

U cant compare GDP of Spain with gulf states it's like comparing apple and oranges. Spain had long history and was itself a colonial power whereas it was less than 30 yrs back most gulf states were deserts devoid of any modern technology.

Most important reason according to me is lack of stable government in muslim states especially middle east. Just compre Iraq, it was most developed state where literacy rate was higher than 70% just 20 yrs ago, politics thrashed it. Compare former USSR countries, most of them are in pathetic state same compared to most of muslim states cos lack of leadership and transperancy.

As far as Jews are concerned they have been (atlaset Ashkenazi jews) living in Europe for eons and continouous discrimation by chrstain majority forced them to adapt and adopt certain business practices which most of them are pro now. Numbers dont matter in this modern age anymore.

I strongly deny muslim world is against edcation as i have seen the stat of most of the muslim countries and they are getting better and lack of education is NOT the main cause of terrorism cos most of the terrorists are higly educated eg. the killer of Daniel Pearl eaarned prestigious scholarship to London school of economics. It is political motive.

Inconclusion I want to make one point clear, if you want to find out the main reason for this chaos or disturbance just dont rewind 1 or 2 yrs back...check the whole history (my fav subject) , learn , analyze and then deduce ur conclusion else it will be like watching 20 mins of ending of 3hr movie making wrong conclusion.

sniper420 wrote:I guess this article lacks basic facts. Indiais home of second largest muslim pop. Not long ago I posted an article named Muslim malaise written by editor of Toronto Star which clearly states the reason why Muslim world is backward. Some of the reasons can be attributed to leaders of the country who are corrupt and autoritarian. Most of the muslim countries were former colonial countires which gained independence just recently. The infrastructure and literacy was quite bad at the time of independence in most countries.It's not bcos Muslims dont want any education it's bcos most cant afford it and are poor. Things are changing in Malaysia and Kazakathan. They are now investing on universities and local industries. Most of the muslim nations are populous which may take time to develop the human resources

U cant compare GDP of Spain with gulf states it's like comparing apple and oranges. Spain had long history and was itself a colonial power whereas it was less than 30 yrs back most gulf states were deserts devoid of any modern technology.

Most important reason according to me is lack of stable government in muslim states especially middle east. Just compre Iraq, it was most developed state where literacy rate was higher than 70% just 20 yrs ago, politics thrashed it. Compare former USSR countries, most of them are in pathetic state same compared to most of muslim states cos lack of leadership and transperancy.

As far as Jews are concerned they have been (atlaset Ashkenazi jews) living in Europe for eons and continouous discrimation by chrstain majority forced them to adapt and adopt certain business practices which most of them are pro now. Numbers dont matter in this modern age anymore.

I strongly deny muslim world is against edcation as i have seen the stat of most of the muslim countries and they are getting better and lack of education is NOT the main cause of terrorism cos most of the terrorists are higly educated eg. the killer of Daniel Pearl eaarned prestigious scholarship to London school of economics. It is political motive.

Inconclusion I want to make one point clear, if you want to find out the main reason for this chaos or disturbance just dont rewind 1 or 2 yrs back...check the whole history (my fav subject) , learn , analyze and then deduce ur conclusion else it will be like watching 20 mins of ending of 3hr movie making wrong conclusion.

Well put. Too often History is ignored in most debates.

The fact the the killer of Daniel Pearl went to LSE kind of proves what the problem is in the Arab world. When people want a good education they go to western universities. And those that can afford it, send their high school age children to European boarding school. Unfortunately, the level of the local school here are far below those in the west.

mraph33 wrote:The fact the the killer of Daniel Pearl went to LSE kind of proves what the problem is in the Arab world. When people want a good education they go to western universities. And those that can afford it, send their high school age children to European boarding school. Unfortunately, the level of the local school here are far below those in the west.

Yes yes all this is true but again you forgetting history, Muslims are not against education, the corrupted leaders are, if people become too smart then some royal family would not exist. This education system is that way for a reason in most Islamic courtiers. It certainly nothing to do with Islam because it is encouraged, that why Muslims were the leaders in most science fields in history, and it also not a money issue.

mraph33 wrote:The fact the the killer of Daniel Pearl went to LSE kind of proves what the problem is in the Arab world. When people want a good education they go to western universities. And those that can afford it, send their high school age children to European boarding school. Unfortunately, the level of the local school here are far below those in the west.

Mraph33
Dude, your statement above was seriously weak.

The fact that the killer of Daniel Pearl went to LSE was not because the Universities in the Arab World are below standard, but because HE WAS A BRITISH - BORN PAKISTANI!

So what has he to do with the arab world?

mraph33 wrote:The fact the the killer of Daniel Pearl went to LSE kind of proves what the problem is in the Arab world. When people want a good education they go to western universities. And those that can afford it, send their high school age children to European boarding school. Unfortunately, the level of the local school here are far below those in the west.

lol u mean universities yeah they are better....... skools i felt dubai skools were good

rvp_legend wrote:

mraph33 wrote:The fact the the killer of Daniel Pearl went to LSE kind of proves what the problem is in the Arab world. When people want a good education they go to western universities. And those that can afford it, send their high school age children to European boarding school. Unfortunately, the level of the local school here are far below those in the west.

Mraph33
Dude, your statement above was seriously weak.

The fact that the killer of Daniel Pearl went to LSE was not because the Universities in the Arab World are below standard, but because HE WAS A BRITISH - BORN PAKISTANI!

So what has he to do with the arab world?

To be honest....I don't know anything about his killers other than what was written here.

But the fact that those who can afford to study overseas choose to do so says something about the level of the education system here.

It is not Islam that is the problem, it is a country's political system, wealth, infrastructure, and even geography that are the problems.

let muslims stop thinking that west is the best, western people are good, western degrees are good, give them equal importance. I have been to Asia, Europe and US. But the best country i ever lived was UAE except the racism and bias.
people who are responsible for western countries' achievement are the people from the 3rd world.
Its only that we don't recognize them and somebody else does.

talking about muslims and education does anyone know if there is a good library in dubai which is massive and doesnt need to check your documents like your passport or id or wots so ever :p

rudeboy wrote:talking about muslims and education does anyone know if there is a good library in dubai which is massive and doesnt need to check your documents like your passport or id or wots so ever :p

thats a good one rude boy, my brother who lives in Dubai says he always carries a bundle of passport copies in his car. he says they might ask for a copy for using rest rooms too.

hillaryrowley wrote:let muslims stop thinking that west is the best, western people are good, western degrees are good, give them equal importance. I have been to Asia, Europe and US. But the best country i ever lived was UAE except the racism and bias.
people who are responsible for western countries' achievement are the people from the 3rd world.
Its only that we don't recognize them and somebody else does.

Give me a break. My family worked hard to achieve things in their home countries and where they settled - why should the credit go to 3rd world countries or people? Your statement is absurd.

rudeboy wrote:talking about muslims and education does anyone know if there is a good library in dubai which is massive and doesnt need to check your documents like your passport or id or wots so ever :p

good point rude...i ddnt get any........while the budget spent on those tourists projects is over 20-30 billion the budget for education is very small less than a billion.

kanelli wrote:

hillaryrowley wrote:let muslims stop thinking that west is the best, western people are good, western degrees are good, give them equal importance. I have been to Asia, Europe and US. But the best country i ever lived was UAE except the racism and bias.
people who are responsible for western countries' achievement are the people from the 3rd world.
Its only that we don't recognize them and somebody else does.

Give me a break. My family worked hard to achieve things in their home countries and where they settled - why should the credit go to 3rd world countries or people? Your statement is absurd.

erm.....well if u see how us west rose is bcose of industrial revolution and thks to bunch of intelligensia ppl who took ppl out of dark ages. if u notice during dark ages western countries due to over production seeked market in present third world countries and then they turned to colonial powers from merchants then they looted them constanly like never b4 done by any colonial power...left most of the colonial countries after retrogade poverty has been set in th ecountry. After independence of these colonial countried most ppl were unemployed seeked job in western countries who used em as cheap labor, in NY, canada etc. Even now globalisation is rampant and neocolonialism is trend. That doesnt mean ppl in the west were just slumbering all day...they did infact work hard but not compared to thousands of immigrants from poor background or third world countries

Read, Read, Read.

It was the first word was sent to the prophet thru Gabriel.

Education is extremely spread in the islamic world... you can ask the taxi drivers you see in dubai ... you will find that most of them are a uni. degree holders... at the sametime .. there is nothing wrong with being a taxi driver.

naivety of many makes them feel that if they new couple of things about something... likethey know everything about it.

Its better we get mature and learn how to be humans before we start learning... getting certificate ... and start feeling that we are better than others. i have stumbled across many who have very unique certificates but they are worse than animals.

Adding to what Sniper said above....after colonialization there was a huge mess. Countries in Africa, the Middle East, and more into Asia recieved their independence in the 20th century and they were now left to start an entire system themselves. They were ruled under colonial rule for so many years, adjusted to a system, granted independence (well deserved) and now had to start from scratch. And to add to that, the imperial colonists didn't help with the maintainment/building of an infrastructre, government, education system, etc. A lot of people wonder why much of Africa is so in shambles, yes there is poverty, political instability, but the colonialists squeezed the resources out (diamonds, ivory, etc etc) and left them to create their "independent country." These countries are babies with huge economic and political problems and that is reflected in issues such as the lack of empasis given on education. I think it is just important to look at the historical backgrounds of these issues.
Further, ever wonder why Muslims were so ahead of the game back in the day? They developed algebra and contributed to the foundations of analytical geometry. They were the founders of spherical trigonometry. They translated thousands of significant greek/roman works in philsophy, science, math, literature, medicine etc...Christian scholastics borrowed direct works from original Arabic sources and the Latin translations of the works of Al- Ghazali, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, etc. Islamic art style was also transcient in the west with calligraphy, tiling, and geometric patterns. Muslim farmers introduced Spain to many crops such as sugar cane, rice, oranges, apricots, eggplant, ..etc . Even in term of cleanliness, when the Christian crusaders came over, the Muslims were horrified at their lack of hygiene! Even Christian first-hand crusader accounts elaborate on the cleanliness/hygeine of the Muslims they encountered. It is just very interesting how in a way we are going backwards from the developments that have been made. Sorry if I digressed too much, I just have read a lot on this subject....

i think we r getting back to the "women in the arab and/or muslim world have no (equal) rights" issue. sure, literacy or the lack of it is a problem among the male population also, but in many of these countries an educated wife is not a good wife, so better keep her in the kitchen and as a baby making mashine. as long as she is kept in dark, she will not know how sad her situation is.

but this is just part of the problem, the whole package is more complex.

on the other hand, might be just my luck of meeting the right ppl, but all my arab friends are more educated, speak several languages and generally more opened to different things than most of the europeans i know.

raidah wrote:on the other hand, might be just my luck of meeting the right ppl, but all my arab friends are more educated, speak several languages and generally more opened to different things than most of the europeans i know.

Luck or Bad Luck?
Arab are more open minded than Europeans..... you clearly havent met many Europeans!

noni wrote:Adding to what Sniper said above....after colonialization there was a huge mess. Countries in Africa, the Middle East, and more into Asia recieved their independence in the 20th century and they were now left to start an entire system themselves. They were ruled under colonial rule for so many years, adjusted to a system, granted independence (well deserved) and now had to start from scratch. And to add to that, the imperial colonists didn't help with the maintainment/building of an infrastructre, government, education system, etc. A lot of people wonder why much of Africa is so in shambles, yes there is poverty, political instability, but the colonialists squeezed the resources out (diamonds, ivory, etc etc) and left them to create their "independent country." These countries are babies with huge economic and political problems and that is reflected in issues such as the lack of empasis given on education. I think it is just important to look at the historical backgrounds of these issues.
Further, ever wonder why Muslims were so ahead of the game back in the day? They developed algebra and contributed to the foundations of analytical geometry. They were the founders of spherical trigonometry. They translated thousands of significant greek/roman works in philsophy, science, math, literature, medicine etc...Christian scholastics borrowed direct works from original Arabic sources and the Latin translations of the works of Al- Ghazali, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, etc. Islamic art style was also transcient in the west with calligraphy, tiling, and geometric patterns. Muslim farmers introduced Spain to many crops such as sugar cane, rice, oranges, apricots, eggplant, ..etc . Even in term of cleanliness, when the Christian crusaders came over, the Muslims were horrified at their lack of hygiene! Even Christian first-hand crusader accounts elaborate on the cleanliness/hygeine of the Muslims they encountered. It is just very interesting how in a way we are going backwards from the developments that have been made. Sorry if I digressed too much, I just have read a lot on this subject....

History is wonderfull if more people made the effort to learn it.

But guess what.... its about how a country picks itself up and looks to improve it.

Look at Malaysia and India. compare them to the Middle East.

Malaysia has turned successfull. India is working its way to challenge superpower status despite its huge population and lack of natural resources.

Then look at the middle east.... Puppet Kingdoms, no sign of democracy , Human rights violations mainly to their fellow "Muslim brothers and sisters" and limited education to suppress knowledge.

Even Iran had a democracy in the 50's!!!

rvp_legend wrote:History is wonderfull if more people made the effort to learn it.

But guess what.... its about how a country picks itself up and looks to improve it.

Look at Malaysia and India. compare them to the Middle East.

Malaysia has turned successfull. India is working its way to challenge superpower status despite its huge population and lack of natural resources.

Then look at the middle east.... Puppet Kingdoms, no sign of democracy , Human rights violations mainly to their fellow "Muslim brothers and sisters" and limited education to suppress knowledge.

Even Iran had a democracy in the 50's!!!

Yeah I agree with you. I was just stating that these are historical backgrounds for the occurance of these problems. I would have loved to see these countries build themselves in to strong economic and political powers. It would be a different world.