[quote author=ketchim link=topic=71124.msg441049#msg441049 date=1347558753]
The Crusaders introduced Westernaggression to the peaceful Middle East
and then deformed theenlightened Muslim culture, leaving it in ruins ....
[/quote] only parts of the muslim culture was ever a beakon and that was the Kurdish part . Salhadin was a Kurd and even to this day Kurds are a foward progressive people .
Unfortunately the Kurds are being supressed in all the Arab lands but whenever they have a chance for autonomy as in Northern Iraq , they flourish. Arabs on the whole are a backward people with non oil exports accounting for less than 5 percent.
They made no scientific breakthrough in 500 years and when the oil runs out they will revert back to a nomadic roaming lifestyle.
These will always be a tribal component to these people and they will never fit into the mordern age