Saturday, February 04, 2006

Computers v. Culture (Part II)

Culture is the enemy of progress. Or so it seems on its face. A population works to better itself, and tends to support leaders who share that objective. China’s leadership, bloodstained by its suppression at Tiananmen in 1989 of the historic conscience of its nation, the university students of Beijing, retains power by meeting the people’s need for constant economic progress. When a leadership is unable to deliver such progress, it mobilizes its population to counter a threat to its nationhood, drawing on its cultural resources to do so. Castro in Cuba. Ceausescu in Rumania. Saddam in Iraq.

In fact, not just Iraq but the entire Muslim world, especially its Arab part, appears to be the region where cultural imperatives most effectively block economic progress. What is surprising therefore, at least to me, is that in the aftermath of Hamas’ victory in Palestine, several observers have said that the Islamist-based Hamas represents the drive for change in the Middle East, while secular Fatah represents the status quo. Fatah is like the governments of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan—saddled with a reputation for corruption and economic stagnation.

According to Egypt Muslim Brotherhood leader Essam Erian, Islam is the strategy for achieving “equality, prosperity, and unity.” Karim Makdisi at the American University in Beirut expressed similar sentiments. And USC researcher Reza Aslan writes that Bin Laden’s appeal to Muslims is based on moving Islam beyond a hierarchical faith run by Imams to one where individuals are free to overcome their own sense of social and economic alienation. (LA Times, 1.28.06)

Militant Islam as the path to economic prosperity in the Middle East?


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