"I would boycott Arab products, but the Arab countries are not producing anything of interest to anybody."

er... How about a little oil?

I second all of that!

How about a little oil?

I believe that was produced by prehistoric marine animals and vegetation. I don't think the Arabs had anything to do with its production.


Western inventors invented a way to make it useful.

Western engineers located it and found a way to extract it.

All the Arabs did in connection with it was sitting on it (by chance). I understand they occasionally nationalise the oil industry.

Ancient life may have created it, and western technology may have utilized it, but the Arabs are producing it.  However it is not a uniquely arab product (Arab Oil looks just like North Sea oil by the time it hits the pumps).  And I cant think of anything uniquely Arabian that has a world market.

Ancient life may have created it, and western technology may have utilized it, but the Arabs are producing it.

They are not "producing" it in the same sense that the Danish produce LEGO and the Germans produce cars.

They are "producing" it because they happen to sit on it and have nationalised (in many cases) the equipment installed by western companies. They are not adding anything to the current world economy unless you count sitting on the oil as a value in itself. If the Arabs didn't sit on the oil, whatever would we do? Extract it without paying them? Why would we be worse off? What value are they adding?

Note that I'm not saying that Arabs can't be productive and create valuable stuff. But I am saying that they are not currently known for it.

Well there's Persian carpets, dates, tourism and those extremely tacky canvases of Mecca with the light-up sections. Oh, and certain areas are exporting a great deal of knowledge about modern urban warfare. But realistically speaking, who needs heavy industry when you have oil? I'd rather be an oil baron than a manufacturing tycoon; you have a guaranteed market. Why should the Middle East produce anything else? There's not much in it for them to do so.

I think the point is if you look at the history of the Middle East, its decline began when the strictest form of Islam gained popularity. At one time the Middle East was the height of human culture and science. So much of what we know and use has trickled down from Arab scholars.

But... like the worst of Christianity, the worst of Islam seems to stifle free thought, free expression, and limit the creativity and curiosity of its believers. Not all Islam, not by any means, but I think Islam took a "political" turn in the same way Christianity did in the Middle Ages, and was used not to lift people up, but to keep them down.

The key is for Muslims to look hard at those aspects of their religion that are used specifically to control and use them. Women especially. Perhaps they'll have their reformation eventually. I think it has already happened gradually in many areas, but it will be violent in the Middle East.

But realistically speaking, who needs heavy industry when you have oil?

All the countries that produce goods and provide services are richer and more successful than the countries that rely on the selling of oil.

The US, Canada, Australia, the EU, and also Turkey are richer than the Arab countries, more influential, and more powerful in the economic and the military sense. The Arab world imports our culture, but has nothing to offer to us. There is nothing Arab that the west wants. But there is a lot of western stuff that the Arabs want. Do you think rich Saudi "princes" drive cars produced in Arabia? They drive European cars.

Why are there so many Muslims in Europe? It's because Arabs and other Muslims wanted to leave their homes and move to Europe. They want our way of life, they want to enjoy it like we do. But they can't create it for themselves. They cannot lift themselves up; but they can hope to take us down.