Freedom Lawyers of America

ISLAMISTS WORLDWIDE WATCH
Pocatello, Idaho July 3, 2002

A major study warns of major stagnation in Arab societies. This New York Times article by
Barbabra Crossette notes that the study indicates that Arab societies are being crippled by a
lack of political freedom, the repression of women, and an isolation from the world of ideas that
stifles creativity. However, that is saying the obvious...kind of like observing that tigers have big
teeth. The study reports that Spain alone translates more books each year than all 22 Arab
nations have done in the past 1000 years.

The report seems to support Ibn al-Rawandi's comments (referring to all of Islam...not just Arabs):
"Islam is in fact the last refuge for those conservative western intellectuals who wish it were true
that the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the French revolution, in short
'the modern world,' had never come about. Islam is, indeed, the only remaining mental space in
which these events have not yet happened."
The study suggests that this stagnation is harmful not only for Arab intellectuals, women, and youth,
but threatens the long-term survival of the culture and eventually, Islam. A culture that rejects all
outside ideas cannot adapt; it simply dies...like the Dodo bird. Read and share.

NY TIMES