A failed Civilization

While Americans, Europeans, Russians, Japanese, Chinese explore the skies and deep space with our satellites, probes, and space stations the Muslim civilization yet have to produce a decent election.
Whereas westerners, through the Middle Ages, strived to learn from the superior Muslim culture of the time when Muslims controlled most of the knowledge of the age (remember the numerous Christian translators of Arabic philosophical treatises) Muslims did not try to learn from the west in later centuries after the renaissance and during the age of exploration because you were not supposed to learn from the infidel.

After the last failed Ottoman attempt of taking Vienna in the 17th century it was obvious that the civilization of Islam had fallen way behind the west. Then the invasion of Napoleon in 1798 brought home a harsh lesson: even a small European force could invade one of the heartlands of the former powerful Islamic empire. This realization of the dire situation of their civilization and a refusal to learn from the infidels continues to this day and is a major source of resentment and hate among Muslims for the west which explains in part organizations like Al- Quaeda.
According to Bernard Lewis The discovery of the New World by Europeans was basically ignored by the powerful Ottoman Empire. A Turkish version of Columbus own (now lost) map, prepared in 1513, survives in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, where it remained unconsulted and unknown, until a German scholar discovered it in 1929 . What this tell you of an Empire as powerful as the Ottoman?

For the Ottomans Knowledge was something to be acquired, stored, if necessary bought, rather than grown or developed (from the book What Went Wrong?). I saw this mentality in Saudi Arabia to where I have been twice. I saw that most of the technical workers and engineers that work for the Aramco oil company owned by the House of Saud are not Saudi nor Arabs (with very few exceptions) but European, American, even Korean, Japanese, Indian and Chinese. Think of the different outcomes of former British colonies such as India as opposed to Pakistan and you get the idea.

By pointing out all this I am not excusing the recolonization of Islamic lands by the Bush Administration. Building an empire in the Middle East should have been an idea that smarter Americans would've had to refuse and the British could've been more open about their experience with this part of the World after WW1 but apparently they too forgot about the foolishness of military adventures in the sands of Iraq.

The Middle East need to have a profound social, intellectual and economic transformation if it wants to be a relevant civilization once again. It has to adopt a secular mentality in the western style that transforms the role of religion in the life of its citizens into a personal matter instead of an all encompassing totality. It needs to quit the idea that it has a monopoly on victimhood and grievance and outgrow it just like many ex-colonies around the World have done, and for Allah's sake: quit blowing yourself and your countrymen up!!

As an example of the gulf between our civilizations read about the controversy in Egypt about a breast feeding fatwa, and about honor killings in Europe by Muslims immigrants. It is simply incredible:
Fatwa promotes adult breastfeeding

Father found guilty in honor killing