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Muslims doing Well
Life may be bleak in the Middle East, but it’s never been better
Life is certainly harsh in many parts of the Middle East, but in general it’s never been so good. "In absolute terms, the living standard in the Middle East was much higher in the 19th century than in the 13th and is still much higher now," notes University of Southern California economist Timur Kuran, who studies the economics of Islam. The decline has been a relative one. In other words, to return to Islam’s golden age, would be to increase poverty, not escape from it.
Islam experienced at least four Golden Ages. Islamists consider 622 to 661, the time of the prophet Muhammad and his immediate followers, the best of times. Social scientists and historians point to life in Baghdad and Damascus in the 10th and 11th centuries, Spain in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the Ottoman Empire in the 15th and 16th centuries as Golden Ages. Pluralistic tolerance, intellectual inquiry, and trade characterized each of these latter periods.
It wasn’t until late 1600s and early 1700s that the West surpassed the Middle East economically. Some give credit for this to colonial exploitation and the fact that capitalism is better suited to the West. Khalid Sayeed, for instance, writes in the Toronto Star that "Capitalism works in the West thanks to endowments of natural and technological resources." Others point to the abundance of a natural resource, oil, as the source of the region’s problems. A more convincing reason, offered by Kuran and explained lucidly by Reason editor-at-large Virginia Postrel, is that the Middle East was slow to develop legal institutions that protect private property and wealth accumulation.
Western-style secular capitalism hasn’t failed Islam or the Middle East. It’s never really been tried. Just look at Turkey, a secular westernized country, 98 percent Muslim, with a per capita income considerably higher than some oil-exporting states.
Islam experienced at least four Golden Ages. Islamists consider 622 to 661, the time of the prophet Muhammad and his immediate followers, the best of times. Social scientists and historians point to life in Baghdad and Damascus in the 10th and 11th centuries, Spain in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the Ottoman Empire in the 15th and 16th centuries as Golden Ages. Pluralistic tolerance, intellectual inquiry, and trade characterized each of these latter periods.
It wasn’t until late 1600s and early 1700s that the West surpassed the Middle East economically. Some give credit for this to colonial exploitation and the fact that capitalism is better suited to the West. Khalid Sayeed, for instance, writes in the Toronto Star that "Capitalism works in the West thanks to endowments of natural and technological resources." Others point to the abundance of a natural resource, oil, as the source of the region’s problems. A more convincing reason, offered by Kuran and explained lucidly by Reason editor-at-large Virginia Postrel, is that the Middle East was slow to develop legal institutions that protect private property and wealth accumulation.
Western-style secular capitalism hasn’t failed Islam or the Middle East. It’s never really been tried. Just look at Turkey, a secular westernized country, 98 percent Muslim, with a per capita income considerably higher than some oil-exporting states.
For more information:
http://reason.com/ml/ml112901.shtml
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look at the rampant economic sanctions on Iraq and the devestation of it's infrastructure by the United States, yes part of the war plan.
look at the liberty of free enterprise enjoyed by the Palestinians.
look at the freedom given to axis of evil member Iran to engage in free enterprise without american interference.
look at the bounties of a Saudi monarchy supported raised and created by British imperialists.
Yes, things are grand int he Middle East. Just look at Middle Eastern tiger Lebanon blossoming after 20 years of western sponsored civil war.
Look at Lybia after years of economic sanctions just driving toward economic bliss.
Look at Sudan, cut off from the world by sanctions, it's sole pharmacological source blown up by US bombs.
Things haven't ever been better in the MIddle East.
It's highly enjoyable that one can rip the context out of an comparison between then and now and say that middle eastern per capita income has never been higher especially in Turkey. Let's ask a couple simple questions, is this merely your or the authors opinion or do you have actual economic records and a common methodology over the years going back to the 7th Century that you can boldly make such an preposterous claim. Actually, it wasn't even western colonialism that devestated the Islamic system or "golden ages". Your author missed a very big part of Islamic history by ignoring the Abbasid dynasty and the subsequent destruction of the Abbasid's by the easter invasions of the Monghol empire.
Let's see, were muslims better off in the middle east when there was relative freedom, education and a social infrastucture or now when they are led by mini-dictators engaged by Western powers. It is easy to quote per-capita incomes because they take no account of the actual diversions and social cleavages within a society. Say in Saudi where the royal family has unbelievable wealth whereas the typical Shi'a villager lives in a hut with a dirt floor, same for Turkey, turkey.