Is Islam really the problem?

imamkampung

Ada sesape boleh tolong translate dan bagitau apa omputeh ni cakap tak?

Ana cakap omputeh one two three good morning Sir tau lah. Ni apa dia cakap ni? Dia kutuk Islam ke? :@

                            Is Islam really the problem?
            
        
                    
Once the world's centre of culture and commerce, the Middle East can start moving forward again        
                                                   by Nicholas D Kristof            
            05:56 AM Mar 07, 2011
                        A wise visitor from outer space who dropped in on Earth a millennium ago might have assumed that the Americas would eventually be colonised not by primitive Europeans but by the more advanced Arab civilisation - and that as a result we Americans would all be speaking Arabic today.

      Yet after about the year 1200, the Middle East took a long break: It stagnated economically and today it is marked by high levels of illiteracy and autocracy. So as the region erupts in protests seeking democracy, a basic question arises: What took so long? And a politically incorrect question: Could the reason for the Middle East's backwardness be Islam?

      The sociologist Max Weber and other scholars have argued that Islam is inherently a poor foundation for capitalism and some have pointed in particular to Islamic qualms about paying interest on loans.

      But that does not seem right. Other experts note that Islam in some ways is more pro-business than other major religions.

      The Prophet Muhammad was a successful merchant and much more sympathetic to the wealthy than Jesus was. And the Middle East was a global centre of culture and commerce in, say, the 12th century: If Islam stifles business now, why didn't it then?

      As for hostility toward interest on loans, similar teachings are found in Jewish and Christian texts and what the Quran bans is not interest as such but "riba", an extreme form of usury that could lead to enslavement for failing to pay debts. Until the late 18th century, Muslims were as likely to be money-lenders in the Middle East as Christians or Jews. And today paying interest is routine even in the most conservative Muslim countries.

      Many Arabs have an alternative theory about the reason for the region's backwardness: Western colonialism. But that seems equally specious and has the sequencing wrong.

      "For all its discontents, the Middle East's colonial period brought fundamental transformation, not stagnation; rising literacy and education, not spreading ignorance; and enrichment at unprecedented rates, not immiserisation," writes Professor Timur Kuran, a Duke University economic historian, in a meticulously researched new book, The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East.

      Prof Kuran's book offers the best explanation yet for why the Middle East has lagged.

      After poring over ancient business records, Prof Kuran persuasively argues that what held the Middle East back was not Islam as such, or colonialism but rather various secondary Islamic legal practices that are no longer relevant today.

      It is a sophisticated argument that a column cannot do justice to but, for example, one impediment was inheritance law. Western systems most commonly passed all property intact to the eldest son, thus preserving large estates.

      In contrast, Islamic law stipulated a much fairer division of assets (including some to daughters) but this meant that large estates fragmented. One upshot was that private capital accumulation faltered and could not support major investments to usher in an industrial revolution.

      Prof Kuran also focuses on the Islamic partnership, which tended to be the vehicle for businesses. Islamic partnerships dissolved whenever any member died and so they tended to include only a few partners - making it difficult to compete with European industrial and financial corporations backed by hundreds of shareholders.

      The emergence of banks in Europe led long-term British interest rates to drop by two-thirds leading up to the Industrial Revolution. No such drop occurred in the Arab world until the colonial period.

      These traditional impediments are no longer a problem in the 21st century. Muslim countries now have banks, corporations, and stock and bond markets and inheritance law now is not an obstacle to capital accumulation. So if Prof Kuran's diagnosis is correct, that should bode well for the region - and Turkey's boom in recent years underscores the potential for a renaissance.

      Yet one challenge is psychological. Many Arabs blame outsiders for their backwardness and cope by rejecting modernity and the outside world. It is a disgrace that an area that once produced outstanding science and culture (giving us words like algebra) now is an educational underachiever, especially for girls.

      The crisis in the Arab world provides a chance for a new start. I hope we will have some tough, honest conversations on all sides about what went wrong - as a starting point for a new and more hopeful trajectory.

      The Muslim Brotherhood has often used the slogan, "Islam is the solution". And to the West, the unstated feeling upon looking across the bleak Middle East landscape has often been: "Islam is the problem".

      Prof Kuran's research suggests that, at least looking forward, the more correct view is: Islam is not the problem and it is not the solution, it is simply a religion - meaning that the break is over, there are no excuses and it is time to move forward again.  THE NEW YORK TIMES

      

      Nicholas D Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.

kasibiman

dia cakap lobai spammer sontap, lobai celup2 rehsia2 sampai 4 hari anak bini meraung2 kat sotkaba, lobai sontap gay, lobai memburek kamben jiran yg memburukkan nama Islam.

ifanonline

golongan kapir tidak akan hidup senang sekiranya umat islam tidak mengikut cara hidup dan pemikiran mereka...

imamkampung

Reply 2# kasibiman

Betul-betullah! Siot betol jawa ni!

imamkampung

Reply 3# ifanonline

apa si nikolas tu cakap? orang kaper ni memang dengki dengan kita.

anya8797

islam becomes a problem... bila ada lobai yang perasan diri lebih islam dari orang lain.... bila benda segala dibuat .... dibuat atas alasan islam.... dan bila apa2 yang berlaku...semua salah islam......

imamkampung

Reply 6# anya8797

orang Islam kenalah hidup ikut cara Islam. Kenapa pulak dia kata itu masalah? Ente ada masalah dengan cara hidup Islam ke?

mbhcsf

"For all its discontents, the Middle East's colonial period brought fundamental transformation, not stagnation; rising literacy and education, not spreading ignorance; and enrichment at unprecedented rates, not immiserisation," writes Professor Timur Kuran, a Duke University economic historian, in a meticulously researched new book, The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East.

      Prof Kuran's book offers the best explanation yet for why the Middle East has lagged.

      After poring over ancient business records, Prof Kuran persuasively argues that what held the Middle East back was not Islam as such, or colonialism but rather various secondary Islamic legal practices that are no longer relevant today.

      It is a sophisticated argument that a column cannot do justice to but, for example, one impediment was inheritance law. Western systems most commonly passed all property intact to the eldest son, thus preserving large estates.

      In contrast, Islamic law stipulated a much fairer division of assets (including some to daughters) but this meant that large estates fragmented. One upshot was that private capital accumulation faltered and could not support major investments to usher in an industrial revolution.

      Prof Kuran also focuses on the Islamic partnership, which tended to be the vehicle for businesses. Islamic partnerships dissolved whenever any member died and so they tended to include only a few partners - making it difficult to compete with European industrial and financial corporations backed by hundreds of shareholders.












.. i do not agree with this...anyone?

ni ...i tak setuju tang faraid- still dia terlalu bersifat literal dalam hal faraid dan dalam menafsirkan faraid dan dia tidak ambil cth negara mana  so ...pada saya faraid mmg nampak macam berat sebelah tapi ada ruangan musyawarrah laaa dan ...dia nampaknya tidak  menyeluruh sangat tentang komennya tu tang bab faraid. not a fair account.

lagi satu muamalat dia suka sentuh - konsep islam ialah - ia lebih dari melindungi sepohon pokok, dia bersifat mejaga keamanan / keselamatan sejagat itu universalnya ISLAM sebab tu org kena  faham pasai apa ada konsep teguran dalam islam bukan sebab nak holier than thou tapi sebab nak menjaga tapiiiii ini pun tapi org tu pun kena jaga kredibilitilah ...kalau sekejap lain, hari ni lain esok lain then well..hacklah

so mosep murabahah / mudharabah ni iam sure Malaysia punya gang gang expert perbankan islam  boleh bagi counter argument.

imamkampung

Reply 8# mbhcsf

apa yang tak setuju?

mbhcsf

Reply  mbhcsf

apa yang tak setuju?
imamkampung Post at 8-3-2011 11:18

    apa yang Saudara  terkejut sangat ? ada benda yg dia tulis tu i tak setuju ...kenapa? u setuju ? fine.

winamp05

islam becomes a problem... bila ada lobai yang perasan diri lebih islam dari orang lain.... bila ben ...
anya8797 Post at 8-3-2011 11:04 AM

islam takkan become problem. yg problem tu adalah people yg islam tu sendiri. mana boleh agama silap dengan sendiri atau disilapkan. orang yg silap. tolong betulkan pandangan. hehehe.

mbhcsf

Prof Kuran's research suggests that, at least looking forward, the more correct view is: Islam is not the problem and it is not the solution, it is simply a religion - meaning that the break is over, there are no excuses and it is time to move forward again.  THE NEW YORK TIMES

u setuju ka ni ?

well...it is about time to understand the whole passage

arabs are backwards becaus eof their mentality and sadly this is thought as BEING  



ISLAM...

imamkampung

Reply 12# mbhcsf

cakap melayu la ya akhi!

mbhcsf

Reply  mbhcsf

cakap melayu la ya akhi!
imamkampung Post at 8-3-2011 11:32

    hmm...saya rasa kan saudara kena faham, keseluruhan ? passage / rencana ni laaakemudian barulah boleh faham mesej utama dia...
     tu la yg saya cakap tu ....dia ni pukul sma rata jer islam and arab = satu identiti ...dia banyak kritik kononnya islam tu ada benda yg memundurkan umatnya like adalaa dia cakap dalam hal faraid, muamalat semua tu yg saya rasa dia tak betul. berat sebelah...dan dia kritik masyarakat middle east / timur tengah yg  tak bagi pelajaran kepada kaum wanita dalam sesuatu bidang rasanya....ini saya partially bersetuju dan ada yg saya tak setuju sebab DIA BANYAK samakan nilai islam dengan fahama asabiyyah dan mentaliti mundur bangsa ARAB...walhal kat Malaysia lain situasi...

dan last sekali tang prof Kuran tu cakap islam bukan masalah dan bukan penyelesaian - oi rasa ni pernyataan  yang agak dangkal dan sempit

tu jer...

Acong

sbb penganutnya malas...........

langlobat

Reply  mbhcsf

cakap melayu la ya akhi!
imamkampung Post at 8-3-2011 11:32

pelaga...hang nak jadi chairman jer ke? Bagi ler sedikit ulasang....ulasang cara amenu ka ulasang cara pis ka?

anya8797

islam takkan become problem. yg problem tu adalah people yg islam tu sendiri. mana boleh agama ...
winamp05 Post at 8-3-2011 11:26

yelah win... yang anya sebut tu pun........it's about people.... it's not about the teachings.... how can it be you put a bomb on a child soldier and sugar coated the fact that he's about to commit martyrdom by saying that he's about to commit suicide and thrust him into the crowd waiting for the bomb to explode....

ajinomotonosuga

dia kata

cikgu suke main bola, hari hari cikgu main bola.

lepas tu dia kata

itu harta bukan kamu yang punya, itu harta amad albab yang punya

last sekali dia kata..

cikgu kencing berdiri, ostad kencing berlari, anak murid kencing melompat

gitu2 lah terjemahannya

petola

org islam cenderung korupkan seme menda baik dlm dunia nih...

dlm politik guna pemerintahan presiden tapi dikorupkan institusi itu
yg raja pun korupkan sistem raja
yg pilih demokrasi plak demokrasi dikorupkannya
iltizam untuk jadikan sistem2 tu berfungsi dgn baik tak ada... semua disalahguna dan dikorupkan
camna nak maju...

aazek

committing suicide never was n never is about islam