The document summarizes the obstacles to progress in the Arab world according to Norvell B De Atkine. It identifies 9 main burdens: the harsh natural environment; the burden of history; a declining education system; cultural stagnation; a stagnated economy; a politicized clergy; a politicized military; a betrayal by the intellectual elite; and an irresponsible media. It discusses how each of these factors has contributed to the lag of the once great Arab/Islamic empire behind the rest of the world.

1. The Obstacles To Progress in the
Arab World
Norvell B De Atkine
youstahz@aol.com
Why does a once great empire lag
so far behind the rest of the
world? Reviewed Aug 2015

2. The Great Arab/Islamic Empire

3. The Most Advanced in the World
Al-Kharazmi
Chemistry
Mathematics
Greek Classics
Philosophy
Astronomy
Navigation
Medicine

4. Military Prowess Unmatched
These 7th
century warriors
conquered all before them

5. What Went Wrong
• Best to read the book of the same title by
Bernard Lewis.
– Self-Sufficiency/isolation
– Trade route shift
– Fragmentation
– Mongol invasion
– ossification

6. Why the Continuing Stagnation?
• The nine Burdens
– The austere natural environment
– The burden of history
– The declining education system
– Cultural stagnation
---Stagnated economy
--Politicized clergy
– Politicized military
– Betrayal by Intellectual elite
– An irresponsible and/or bought media

7. Natural environment

8. Environmental Factors
• Paucity of Land suitable for
agriculture
• Population distribution
• Climatic factors
• Diminishment of the Bedouin life
style
• Lack of water

9. water
• The origins of the great rivers systems e.g
not in countries that need it the most.
• The decreasing aquifer water
• The lack of consistent water conservation
As a consequence
lack of food sufficiency
lack of food security

10. Water

11. The Burden of History
then…….
W

12. Arabia Now….
2
22 weak nations

13. As a burden
• The glorification and mythology
• Tareq Heggy “singing our own praises”
• Failure disengaging their culture from elements
of the past incompatible with modernity
• Traditional values too strong to absorb new
ones
• Hume Horan: “historical baggage” lack of a
culture of introspection and self criticism

14. Arab Cultural Stagnation
• Paucity of good books
• Research minimal
• Literacy not high and declining
• Political constraints
• Rise of Religious constraints
• Western pop culture

15. Mohammed Arkoun on the
cultural stagnation
• The Muslim societies import the most
complex technological materials, buy
the most sophisticated
armaments………but all these
instruments have had little
perceptible effects on mentalities or
even on reflective thought.

16. Education System

17. Education
• Learning by rote
• Gender inequalities
• Heavily Islamic
• Heavily politically oriented
• massive refugee problem
• Language issues

18. The Language of Creation; the
power to galvanize…or inhibit
The three levels and multiplicity of
dialects
–Classical
–Modern standard
–Street
Increasing number of Arabs who
cannot speak or write their own
language well

19. Arabic and Thought
• As Iraqis, we use two languages so, ,we actually use
two kind of thinking. In our daily life we speak slang
but whenever we are in a middle of a big celebration,
we shift to classical Arabic and the same goes for
writing an article or a letter.
• By doing so, we are adopting two characters and
thinking according to two different styles.
• Today, we listen to hundreds of speeches and read
hundreds of articles filled with poetic rhymes and
grammatical decoration, nevertheless those
speeches and writings fail to touch the essence of
our agonies and sufferings.
• Ali al Wardi Iraqi historian and philosopher

20. Stagnated Economy
Timur Kuran;
Islam’s political institutions
tax system failed to protect private property
Religious waqfs system opposed enduring
commercial enterprise
Fabricated ”Islamic economic system”
 Wasta, Bakhish and corruption
•Socialism
•Bureaucracy but no institutions
•Culture that hinders entrepreneurship
•Educational barriers

21. Politicized Clergy
• Political leaders who put on religious garb
and religious leaders who act as political
leaders
– Televangelists
– Al Baghdadi
– Muqtada al Sadr
– My personal recollections
– The importance of the local mosque

22. Politicized military
• Regime protection. First priority of the
mlitary
• Regime distrust of their own people
• Balanced forces Ex Iraqi Republican
guard vs. regular army
• Incompatibility with Western training
methods
• Sectarianism

23. Elites
• Intellectuals who speak for the Masses?
• Gap between intellectuals and the people
• The tendency of the intellectuals to simply
act as promoters of odious regimes
• Those who resist must do so from outside
the Arab world
• As Musa al Husayni depicted them as
lacking courage and ability for self
criticism

24. MEDIA
Plays to emotions. Most is bought and paid for by the governments or
political movements. Largely irresponsible, propagandistic. Very little true
independence.

25. Civil Society? Impediments
• The corruption of the intellectual class
• The lack of a civic consciousness
• The infection of extremist “religious” movements,
leading to the replacement of the utopian dream
of Pan-Arabism by an even greater chimera, The
restoration of the Caliphate.
• The habit of despotic or authoritarian rule.
• “A thousand years of tyranny better than one
day of chaos”