The Middle East suffers from backwardness and decline, characterized by a terrifying capacity for continuity and a particularly terrifying backwardness, Anyone who wants to progress should look for the reasons for backwardness, and looking for the reasons for backwardness is not that difficult task, as it is enough to honestly recognize the characteristics of the self to discover the reasons for backwardness.

Identifying the characteristics of the self in this region is difficult, as the peoples of the region are nothing but groups and tribes that do not know criticism, nor do they practice it, but rather prevent it, Therefore, it can be said that the absence of criticism was one of the reasons for backwardness, The nomadic peoples eliminated the attempts at enlightenment in the nineteenth century, which aimed to radically reformulate the concepts of religious thought, Therefore, this is also considered one of the reasons for backwardness and decline, The will for renewal and the modern thinking and cognitive models that could have absorbed the Western enlightenment and interacted with it positively or at least imitated it were eliminated, Instead, there was insistence on the feeling of the eternal validity of the roots and a morbid longing for the past, and insistence on the process of transferring the bankrupt past into the present, This was the essence of backwardness and decline,In addition, there are many other reasons for backwardness and decline, We have sufficed with mentioning some examples.

The culture of transportation turned to the Bedouin past, which was accompanied by a rejection of the “foolish” pollution of the European Enlightenment present, Then the psychological tendency of the past, of the predecessors of the occupations or as they call them the conquests, turned into a kind of absurdity and nihilism, since there has been no possibility for several centuries of practicing wars and external conquests, which were a source of livelihood from the spoils of war, Therefore, they turned to war and the practice of violence internally, in the form of civil wars from which a small group lived, practicing looting and legendary corruption, which accurately translated the culture of the spoils of war, such as the looting of Ghouta, The addiction to practicing internal wars, violence, and corruption became almost instinctive and necessary for itself, and consequently turned into a suicide that destroyed everything that remained.

Instead of opening up to others, getting to know them, their problems and solutions, and benefiting from their experiences, as Caliph Al-Ma’mun did for a very short period, isolation was practiced in various ways, such as deliberately neglecting foreign languages ​​to avoid contamination by other civilizations, and insisting on Arabizing and translating everything, from schools like Al-Faqih and Al-Mustafa schools in Lebanon and Quran memorization schools, to parties, symbols, the national flag and anthem, etc. The predecessors who were said to be righteous became a target and a role model, as the Ba’ath and the Brotherhood saw it, and regurgitation became the path to salvation, Creativity, innovation, and development became heresy, apostasy, and a justification for takfir (enfindle), which was not limited to rejecting and denouncing the new, but went beyond that to physically eliminating the reformer, such as Farag Foda.

What did the peoples regurgitate from the legacy of the last fourteen centuries, which knew nothing but corruption, wars, and violence? Most of the caliphs of Quraysh died by assassination, and the vast majority of the Ottoman sultans were assassinated in the most heinous ways, In these centuries, the new religion legitimized theft and plunder, i.e., corruption: “Eat what you have gained, it is lawful and pure!” And in the hadith in Sahih Muslim, it says, “Whoever dies without having fought in the way of God or even having considered it, dies on a branch of hypocrisy.” Even intellectually, socially, and politically, the concept of the nation was eliminated while it was in its infancy in the Saqifa of Bani Sa’ida, and tribalism and clannishness were restored to their rightful place!

  Things have remained this way to this day, or rather, they have regressed considerably compared to the pre-Islamic era, to the point that one can speak of a new era of ignorance worse than the old, This new era of ignorance brought jihad and the legitimization of violence, then the unification of tribes of plunder, pillage, and murder, which did not remain internal in the Empty Quarter desert, but rather expanded externally until the conquests encompassed almost a quarter or a fifth of the globe, Here, enrichment was enshrined through the sweat of others, that is, through theft, It is said that the treasuries of the Umayyads were overflowing with money and spoils of war, It never occurred to any Bedouin among the Arabized to ask how and from where the treasuries of the faithful Umayyads “overflowed”! Was it from the sweat of their brows or from their thefts and plunder of other peoples? We remember that a law called the “Where did you get this?” law was issued decades ago, Was anything of this law implemented, or did it remain ink on paper, as usual!

 Without a foreign language like English, for example, it is impossible to understand the prevailing intellectual currents in today’s world, Some have considered ignorance of other languages ​​a form of national progress,Other languages ​​are seen as impurities that must be eliminated in order for Arabic to remain brilliant, Thus, understanding Socrates, Rousseau, Hegel, Locke, and the sciences of physics, chemistry, and the atom has become difficult, Here, there was and still is a kind of hostility towards science and knowledge, The opposing Orientalism has been guided by the illusion that there is a close relationship between knowledge and colonialism, Knowledge was considered part of colonialism, and liberation from colonialism automatically included immunity against knowledge, In fact, there is no need for the knowledge of the infidels, since there are the Quranic knowledge and inventions and the scientific miracles that surpass Newton and the inventor of the internet, fax, and Facebook. Isolation and stagnation were and still are among the most important reasons for backwardness and decline, and the disaster was magnified by the sanctification of isolation and stagnation as a means of not being defiled by the infidel other and infidel thought and remaining in the purity and piety of faith!

We do not claim to be able to fully analyze the phenomenon of local backwardness and decline in a single article, as the subject is far too vast to be addressed in a few dozen lines, However, acknowledging the Ottoman factor in causing this decline is essential, given the central role of the Ottoman Caliphate in its creation, Regarding the neo-Ottomans who coexist in Syria while their hearts beat with Ottoman loyalties, there will be more to say.