You seem to be good a throwing general statements, but rather weak at backing them up with facts.I don't think you realize how irrelevant the Muslim world is on a world stage unless the US has any geopolitical interest in them such as the case with Turkey and KSA. Yes, KSA has oil, but without the industries in Europe and the USA, it is worthless.
Whether we are talking about economic weight/trade, education/science/technology or military - the Muslim world is barely worth mentioning.
Economic weight/trade
There are virtually no companies from the Muslim world in the Global 2000, while quite a few European ones are present on the list. (Search Global 2000)
European economies/companies are the largest source of FDI in the world and one of the main destination. Muslim countries/companies are barely relevant.(Search UNCTAD Investment Report 2014)
The total FDI stock held by GCC countries (the richest in the Muslim world) in the EU is €63 B, which represents around 2% of the total inward FDI in the EU (search Eurostat news release 27/2015 - 11 February 2015)
The EU countries own €54.1 B in GCC countries, which represents around 15% of the GCC inward FDI stock (you can calculate the figure from the reports I posted)
Since 1991, the European Commission has blocked over global 30 mergers and acquisitions and regulated 100s of others. There are no many regulatory bodies in the Muslim world that have done so, at the best some local M&A activity. (search European Commission merger cases)
You will most probably talk about SWF and how Muslims countries own some of the biggest ones. This is true. However let's look at the details. AuM in 2012 for SWFs is currently above $5 trillion (take note that not all SWFs are from Muslim countries), while the global AuM is around $64 trillion. That means SWFs represent around 7% of total wealth. If we generously say that Muslim country own 50% of that amount, it still only represents around 3.5%
(search PwC Asset Management 2020: A Brave New World)
Wealth in most European countries is not owned by governments, but rather individuals via mutual/pension funds. There is a much higher median wealth in European countries and many more HNWI individuals.
(Search Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2014 & Capgemini World Wealth Report)
Education/science/technology
The Muslim world was once great in science and technology, but is today completely irrelevant, whether we are talking about scientific publications, R&D spending, patents or industrial designs.
(search PwC Innovation 1000, WIPO Patents statistics, Sci Mago)
How can the Muslim world even want to compete when the literacy rate in OIC countries is 71.7%, compared to the world average of 80.1% and 98.1% in the developed world
(search SESRIC Report on Education and Scientific Development in the OIC Member Countries 2012-2013)
Some of the best universities and research institutes in the world are located in Europe. There are also none in the Muslim world.
(Search Times Higher Education ranking and Mapping Scientific Excellence)
Military
Even though KSA is indeed a big spender on military, this is all they are and as we can see they are having difficulties to deal with some rag-tags in Yemen. They have no industrial consortia that develop cutting edge military equipment.
(search SIPRI recent arms trends in arms industry)
The only worth mentioning is Turkey, because it has a growing army and has experience through the Kurdish uprisings and cooperation with NATO. Which precisely shows that the only Muslim military power is one that unites with Western countries.
I can give you more, but I think you get the point. Please do tell me more about the power that the Muslims hold globally and your general anecdotal statements
LOL.
And what was the point of your post? I have seen posts like this comparing Switzerland and Russia, and how Switzerland has 'more companies' or 'citizens are rich' and blah blah. In real world, none of that really matters. Stop acting like a teenager that has to "prove" something on the internet.
Your whole premise seem to be showing that West of today is more powerful than Muslim World of today----but why would you state this when
nobody even challenged it?
Let me explain what I meant when I wrote "I never said Muslims hold power in Europe. Muslims hold power
globally, as in...throughout the globe in multiple continents."
The global Islamic Civilization is spreading across the planet and has established itself firmly in the heartlands of all major continents of the world, including Europe.
However, some people remain in their state of ignorance while the image of real world is skewed. I see people (especially indians lol!) commenting about here "impoverished Muslims" as if Muslims are some sort of backwater, rural subsaharan Africans.
The reality however is quite different and can be verified by just looking at credible statistics and data..
Muslim World has massive industries, advance transport systems, nuclear reactors and nuclear technology, brands that are consistently ranked number one globally (For example check out the global airlines ranking), advance telecommunication across spectrum, some of the largest corporations of the world, massive production of agriculture, minerals, steel etc. and many Muslim nations have also placed satellites in the space.
Offcourse, they are not as advance as United States/West (please don't get insecure and bring this back again).
.but Islamic peoples are a complete modern peoples of 21st century with all the technological advancements, infrastructure, and the production means to not only sustain but advance their civilization as well (which, if you haven't noticed, they have been doing).
Islamic World...
as an aggregate (I know the diversity, please don't say Saudi and Indonesia are different, I know that--but you get my point)...is a "middle-class" world extending globally across continents. Islamic Civilization encompasses around 1/4 of humanity and has presence on GLOBAL scale (One of the ONLY two global civilization human kind has ever seen (the other is West) ). So much so, that it has spread and extended to established itself in the heartlands of Europe and throughout the Western World as well The "average" income of an average Muslim of the world is around $10,000 by purchasing power parity (Source: 2014 updated world bank statistics on global economy). Some Muslim countries are rich as fcuk, while others poor. Many others in the middle.
But over-all, Islamic World is a middle-income economic sphere.
The total exports of Muslim World are around $2.2 trillion (majority of them non-oil/gas exports). Total industrial output of Muslim World is more $550 billion (excluding Iran's). International Tourism to Muslim world alone generates $143 billion in revenue, with 150 million international tourists arriving at various lands within global Muslim sphere. Muslim World publishes 150,000+ scientific papers every year. I know compared with peak of Western World, it is not as good--but these numbers on their own are
gigantic in themselves.
And do we need to talk about market size of 1.7 billion customers?! Here's something..
The worth of global halal food market alone is $1.1 trillion. In other words, just food market of Muslims in twice the size of entire Japanese exports for 2014! ( I know Japanese are way, way advance than any Muslim country. And they have achieved more than any Muslim country. I know and respect that. But on global scale, I'm just giving you an idea of size)
So all this talk of "poor Muslims..oh uh" is nothing but pure imagination of some people that just can not digest the reality and would like to keep living in their own self-imagined world. (a general comment)
Muslims control tremendous amount of world's resources (energy, oil, minerals), rule gigantic populations across continents, control vast territories, have some of the largest/most powerful militaries of the world (including nuclear forces), Islamic law/culture shapes the lives of
BILLIONS of
people across continents, and so on.
The amount of power, influence, and resources Islamic Civilization has is insane...considering the fact that Islamic Civilization(s) remained superpower(s) of the world for nearly 1000+ years and ruled the Earth from 7th to 18th century (general trend) and today they are in their "demise" per say (since West took that lead post 18th century and maintains it till now).
In other words, Islamic Civilization is so powerful in itself that they are "expanding" even during their "demise cycle"...No other civilization in history has done that. And here we have people who dream of "erasing Islam" from planet (if they could---many in U.S, too. You know it). LOL!!
Heck, forget about global Islamosphere were Muslims are in power and rule, Islam and Islamic Civilization is thriving even in the heart of ultra secular Europe!!
Muslims and Islam are a integral part of Europe/West now. Tens of millions of Europeans across Europe are Muslims. There are tens of thousands of mosques, millions of girls in Hijab and millions more following Islamic dress code. Halal-food is mainstream. Islamic presence and symbols can be 'felt' in every major European center. Muslim Europeans are involved in mainstream European life as businessmen, innovators, doctors, engineers, celebrities, soccer players, journalists, property-dealers, politicians, teachers, social workers, TV actors, News anchors, and even p*rn-stars (yes!)!! Islam has become inevitable part of European fabric. It is Europe's largest minority socio-cultural-religious force.
There is special transmission on TV channels during Ramadan in UK, and inclusion of Islamic studies in Public schools across Germany are all evidences of how Islamic Civilization has spread its presence throughout Europe.
When you have Islamic Studies in
PUBLIC SCHOOLS for better integration of society, you don't get more mainstream than that...
Arabic is being taught in the heartlands of Europe to thousands of children who were born in Europe and are Europeans by law.
Heck, Muslims are in the parliaments of Europe, serve as ministers in European governments, and have commanded the ruling parties of major European nations.
In the largest capital of European Union, 33% of all small to medium sized enterprises/businesses are owned by Muslims!! (Even though Muslims represent only 12% of the population)
Source:
London's Mecca rich: the rise of the Muslim multi-millionaires splashing their cash | London Life | Lifestyle | London Evening Standard
Muslims have tremendous power, control, and influence across the globe...with powerful allies in the International system. (Allies in West, and East)
GCC Sheiks will not cross U.S b/c it goes against their interests. Same goes for U.S. Come back when U.S is able to extract something from GCC that GCC itself deem running contrary to their interests.
Hint: That will almost never happen.
Recently, Turkey give a big f*ck you to NATO when they chose Chinese systems with ToT. Same goes for Pakistan which did its own thing in Afghanistan in regards to Taliban/Al Qaeda---even though the superpower itself want Pak to do something else. And lets not even talk about Iran in Iraq, their nuclear fiasco, and so on. Everybody protects their interests and you know better.
So, you see,
Muslims do hold power
globally, as in...throughout the globe in multiple continents. It doesn't mean that I'm saying that West is less powerful and that Muslims hold more power than West etc.
Moreover, Turkey alone is more relevant/powerful than 97% of European continent! (Only France, Germany, and UK surpass Turkey in that regard). However, you can bring all the fancy companies from Switzerland or Belgium and keep churning our irrelevant stuff online.
Not really......most of Europe was saved.So,as long as you admit past trangressions just accept today's reality as karma.
lol, not really.
European civilization was
erased from
entire Southern Mediterranean world (which we call North Africa now), Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and so on.
So yeah, "most of Europe" was saved but only after sustaining eradication of its presence from massive territory and loss of millions of people to foreign culture/civilization..
And Europe couldn't do anything similar to Islam. The "best" it could do was when French made Algeria as "extension" of natural France---and saw it as part of France.
Result? Algerians--not only maintained their Islamic culture/identity---they organized around that identity and brutally threw out entire French presence while the power difference b/w France and Algeria was extreme to put it mildly.
French dreamed of having a culture-altering effect on one Muslim territory atlast--but considering reality, there might be more Mosques in FRANCE before Algeria gets any Catholic churches in great number
