Its been a LONG time since it was the most advanced region, the golden age of Islam was over long long long ago.
As for that image its a load of bs, most of Europe is atheist and the nations which arent like Russia, Greece, Italy etc are "loose" christians, attend church a few times a year and maybe wear a cross but thats literally the extent of their religiousness.
Religion is a problem in the ME as its a divider, the same as it is everywhere, im not religious but I dont label myself as an atheist either, I am born belonging to no group so I refuse to label myself because others have chosen to label themselves. The world would be alot more peaceful if we took away another reason to fight each other, sure we would still fight but its a big divider.
You don't get the points that I wrote or you simply did not read my post
My historical and undeniable examples clearly disprove the notion that religion per se should be the main problem in the Arab world/Muslim world.
You don't need to tell me about Europe. I am partially European, have lived in Europe for half of my life and live here currently. I know Europe as well if not better than you and most people here.
No, religion is not the main problem in the ME. The problems are found in the social, political and governmental ills. You can argue whether the influence of religion is a good or bad thing but I don't accept the notion that religion itself is the main problem.
Islam or rather Muslims too need to reform, I agree with that, but those reforms won't matter anything as long as there is injustice in the ME, corrupt rulers, lack of competent political leaders, dictatorships, lack of cooperation etc.
Those people that cause most of the problems in the ME (people of power) are not even practicing Muslims with few exceptions. Many are likely closet Atheists. Yet they are a big reason for the current ills. Meanwhile you have millions of ordinary Muslims in the Arab/Muslim world whose values and conduct is many times better than those people. I believe that a lot of Islamic teachings have made them this way.
Anyway this forum/thread is not suited for complicated discussions such as this one. Besides I cannot write what I want to write in the span of 10 minutes despite writing long posts. We are wasting our times and we should stick to the topic.
Personally I am not interested in what people believe in as long as they are not harming others. I have my beliefs that I follow and they as any beliefs are prone to changes as we don't live in a vacuum.
Nobody here will convince any sane person that religion is the main cause for all ills in the ME/world or that God does not exist. Such topics have been discussed since time immortal and will be discussed long after we are gone and there won't ever be a consensus. It's pointless. Let's just stick to our personal convictions. It's like discussing food, women, sport or politics.
The key should be that people should be able to do what they want to do as long as they are not harming others. If people want to believe in God and feel that their life is enriched by this let them. If people think that we get born and then die later to be turned into fertilizer and that there is nothing afterwards then let them have this opinion too.
In any case as I have always been saying. Secularism and democracy would solve most of the problems in the ME. Such concepts took centuries to develop in Europe and literarily 100 MILLION casualties were needed. The Arab world/ME will have to go through a similar process. Whether it will be as painful I don't know. Nobody does.
What is certain is that we (all PDF users) will die at a time where at least one part of the world is burning due to wars and conflicts and the same global problems and injustices that the world face today will continue as well. Likely at a lower rate due to our increased development as a race and planet but there are also a lot of dangers involved in such developments.
Time will tell.
finally got some one who is pissed at us HOW ABOUT A CUP OF CEYLON TEA
