The rise of oppression in Dar-al-Islam
Once Dar-al-Islam was the epicentre of culture and science
Dar-al-Islam means “the house of peace“ or the “the house of submission to Allah“. It once signified the countries under Islamic rule. It is a misunderstanding to think that Muslim countries are poor or oppressed because of Islam per se.
On the contrary, Sharia was a modern and progressive legal system when it developed. Between 800 and 1100, the Muslim world was a world leader in science, philosophy, medicine, architecture and commerce. Universities like Al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco and Bayt al-Hikma in Baghdad flourished when the West was in deep medieval backwardness.
But the Crusades were a turning point. Although the Christians world ultimately fail militarily, the Crusades embittered the Islamic world and ushered in a period of increased closed-mindedness. A greater suspicion of new ideas developed, and the intellectual openness that had characterised previous centuries began to wane.
Western Europe developed new institutions
At the same time, Western Europe developed new institutions. Historian Timur Kuran points to three key differences: first, Europe invented legal persons, which made it possible to raise capital and run large-scale ventures. Second, European states began actively supporting economic development to strengthen their tax bases. The Islamic world, by contrast, saw state interference in the economy as blasphemous. Third, after centuries of success, the Islamic world became overconfident and considered their model of society to be perfect, which reduced their willingness to embrace new ideas from outside.
Parthasarathi shows how India and the Ottoman Empire, both of which were industrial centres in the 17th century, settled for their strong market positions. When Britain actively supported technological development in the textile industry, it was able to surpass India after 1750. The Ottoman Empire, on the other hand, allowed its own textile industry to be wiped out without reacting. Similarly, the Muslim world missed out on the industrial revolution.
European empires plundered and divided Muslim countries
Later, the problems were compounded by colonialism: European empires plundered and divided Muslim countries, erecting artificial borders and imposing economic structures that still create dependency today. After colonialism, dependency continued through institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, which often imposed harmful austerity programmes on countries.
A new important factor was oil. Oil was needed for industrial machinery, and the discovery of oil in Arabia made poor nomadic chiefs extremely rich. Many of them professed Wahhabism - an ultra-conservative and literalist interpretation of Islam. With their oil revenues, they spread this extremism across the Muslim world and pushed back more tolerant interpretations.
US support for Israel after 1948
Consistent US support for Israel after 1948 has also exacerbated the wounds of the Crusades. For many Muslims, Israel's victories are a constant reminder of historical humiliations and Western domination.
It is important to realise that the problems of Muslim countries are not about religion per se. They are the result of historical violence, power politics and continued global inequality. And the West has its own problems too: the decline of the US under Trump and Western Europe's stagnation in neoliberalism and widening class divides since the 1970s show that no civilisation is immune to decline.
Normal for former colonies to be poor and oppressed
And former colonies in the Global South, regardless of their religion of origin, have often become unpleasant countries to live in after the oppression they have suffered and are suffering.
The idea that military or economic dominance proves moral superiority is a dangerous, imperialistic and Nazi idea.
History is more often governed by brutal power plays and chance than by truth or justice.
True civilisational greatness is based on equality, knowledge, respect for human dignity and justice - regardless of religion or culture.
Roughest in history - but also first to question itself
Western history, when viewed without blinders, is one of the most brutal eras the world has known.
European powers destroyed entire continents
From the 15th century onwards, European powers destroyed entire continents to build their wealth. They wiped out indigenous peoples in the Americas. They ripped millions of people from Africa in the largest slave trade in world history. They colonised Asia and Africa with a racist ideology that saw entire peoples as inferior.
Of course, other civilisations had also engaged in war, conquest and slavery.
Slavery and military conquests in Dar-al-Islam
Islamic caliphates grew by the sword and built their wealth partly on slave labour. The Mongols destroyed entire cities. The Persian Empire under Darius the Great built its empire through campaigns.
But no other system developed the same industrial, racialised and globalised oppression as Europe's empires.
The Western slave trade differed from previous systems in that it dehumanised people on a systematic, 'scientific' level. People were reduced to cargo, commodities - literally insured on ships' shipping documents.
It was the West that created the modern idea of 'race' as a biological hierarchy.
West turned plunder inte a new world order
It was the West that industrialised colonial plunder into a global world order where wealth was concentrated in a few hands.
No other empire before them had managed to convert so much suffering into so much material gain.
A remarkable achievement: self-criticism
And yet, out of this brutal history, something remarkable emerged.
From the wounds of Western society itself, an idea was born that existed nowhere else in the same form:
The birth of self-criticism in the West
That power can and must be scrutinised.
That history must also be told from the perspective of the weak.
That we ourselves can be the culprits.
Already during the time of the slave trade, a few voices in Europe began to say: this is wrong. In the 18th and 19th centuries, movements emerged calling for the abolition of slavery, not out of religious duty but out of ideas of human rights.
Today, at least at our best, we scrutinise our own past.
We see our role in genocide, slavery and colonialism.
We discuss power, racism and historical responsibility.
This is perhaps the only real progress our civilisation has made: daring to question our own foundations.
Executive summary
All great powers in history have committed atrocities. But the Western imperial project was the most extensive, racist and brutal.
The difference today is that the West, unlike many other civilisations, has at least begun to acknowledge this openly and built an idea of justice that requires us to look at ourselves without embellishment.
It is a fragile gain.
But it is also perhaps our best chance to create a different future.
One can see that much of Asia is rising from European domination. East Asia is leading but Southeast and South is doing quite well also. So far West Asia (plus Africa and South America lag behind).
One can ask why, and there are many who have tried to answer. I believe Alice Amsden has answered best. The Asians have simply used the method we used when we industrialized: heavy government help to enterprises who try hard to use the most modern methods.
In principle such methods are condemned by WTO, IMF and the rest. But particularly China is big enough to ask these institutions go fuck themselves. That's why the west hates China so much. But the others ask the Chinese to protect them, and good luck!
If only the Europeans could scrutinize its own past – and present!
The EU parliament has decided that the starvation in Ukraine was a crime equal to the Nazi extermination of peoples – but they have so far said nothing about the starvation disasters in the European colonies in the 19th century, so graphically described by Mike Davis. Apparently Europeans are devoid of guilt.
Also, the Russian invations of Ukraine is – rightly – condemned as a crime, while the extermination of Gazans is considered "self-defence". Ukrainans are Europeans, and for that reason sacrosanct, but Gazans are only Asians.