I know this is a detour from my series on Be Nice, Don't Judge in the Diocese of San Diego, but I just got a brain wave on a topic I've been pondering for years.
What will the world be like for us when Europe and Canada become Islamic? Given demographic trends, we're on track for that.
What if the end result is a 1950s America where we prosper because our competition has been bombed into the Stone Age and we're the only ones with a functional, advanced economy? The analogy isn't perfect as we would share the spoils with Asia in a way we didn't in the 1950s, but the idea might be the same.
Is there a difference between the 8th Air Force and Islam?
Think about this: there isn't a single Muslim country where there are significant manufacturing, software development or investment industries. Quick, name an automobile brand that comes from an Islamic country. You can't because there isn't one.
It's not that they don't have resources, manpower or cash. There are plenty of Islamic countries awash in all three. It must be something cultural. I won't go into it here, but if you have read What Went Wrong by Bernard Lewis, it makes sense. Here's the book's blurb from Amazon.
For centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement -- the foremost military and economic power in the world, the leader in the arts and sciences of civilization. Christian Europe was seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear. And then everything changed. The West won victory after victory, first on the battlefield and then in the marketplace.
In this elegantly written volume, Bernard Lewis, a renowned authority an Islamic affairs, examines the anguished reaction of the Islamic world as it tried to make sense of how it had been overtaken, overshadowed, and dominated by the West. In a fascinating portrait of a culture in turmoil, Lewis shows how the Middle East turned its attention to understanding European weaponry, industry, government, education, and culture. He also describes how some Middle Easterners fastened blame on a series of scapegoats, while others asked not "Who did this to us?" but rather "Where did we go wrong?"
A lot of things went right for America in the 1950s. One of the chief among them was the fact that Europe and Japan were skeletons of their former economic selves. Are we headed back to those halcyon days once Britain, France, Germany and Canada become Islamic Republics?
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| Allahu Akbar, indeed. |
3 comments:
" Quick, name an automobile brand that comes from an Islamic country."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_Turkey
Granted, most of these are manufactured in Turkey for brands like Ford and Toyota, but they have domestic brands as well.
Indonesia also has a surprisingly large auto industry, accounting for 10% of their GDP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_Indonesia
Yes, there are a lot of muslim-majority countries that are industrial basket cases, but there are many that are not. We just don't notice, because they mostly sell their products in Asia and Europe rather than sending them here.
"Most of the vehicles built in Indonesia are from foreign brands, notably Japanese, and produced in the country through a joint-venture plant with a local partner or a fully owned plant."
Dittos for Turkey. Without someone else giving them the capability, they wouldn't have it. Mexico has automobile factories as well, but I wouldn't confuse Mexico with 1990s Germany.
You're right that there is some manufacturing going on in the Islamic countries, but it seems to be derivative, not native.
One more thing. It looks to me like the transition from Western Democracy to Islamic Republic will follow the Lebanese evolution. That is, civil unrest or civil war. By the time there is shariah across Europe, Europe may look a lot like it did in 1945.
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