But, as a class, they act like they are. (Please keep in mind: I’m am speaking of the general class: Muslims. I admit minor variants may be present in the population.)
Seriously.
Muslim culture, first of all, has generally been strongly shaped by Arabic culture, which, among other things, views lying to gain advantage over anyone not of one’s own family or tribe or culture group (in order, with family generally most important) in order to gain advantage as a virtue. Generally, Arabic culture–and by extension much of Islamic culture, views work as a negative value, to be done by servants or slaves (and yes, Islam still allows—heck, encourages and actually fosters—chattel slavery).
Arabs hate dogs, and so the general cultural prohibition on dogs in Islam. (That alone condemns them in any civilized eyes. :-))
Muslims believe the wackiest contrafactual things because the wacky mythology of 6th century Arabs became codified into Mohammed’s sayings.
In order to be a good Muslim, a genuine Muslim, a follower of the so-called “religion of peace” one must revere the original practitioner of Muslim terrorism, Mohammed, the Butcher of Medina. So-called “moderatre” Muslims who say they condemn Islamic terrorist acts but who continue to revere the Father of Islamic Terrorism, its chief model and founding proponent, Mohammed, are liars, hypocrites and the truth is not in them.
Muslims who claim all sorts of cultural superiority over the West, from moral superiority to scientific achievement and all across the board are not stupid. They are willfully ignorant, liars or both. The only “major” cultural achievements of Islamic cultures are mutilating women, breaking treaties (OK, we have a pretty good record of that when it suits us in the West), stabbing friends in the back (personally and as nations), lying, stealing, lying about stealing (yeh, learn the real history of Muslim achievements in math and science: algebra for example), an unbroken chain of sponsoring slavery from its earliest times right up until just about… NOW, oh, and the first globe and the astrolabe–neither of which have seen any improvements by Muslims in the past 1,000 years.
No, Muslims are NOT idiots. They just give a good impression, for anyone who’s paying attention to what they actually say and do, instead of listening to politicians *spit* and Mass Media Podpeople and Academia Nut Fruitcakes.
Bernie points out, at Planck’s Constant, that there have been TWO (TWO!) Muslim Nobel Prize winners for anything involving genuine inventiveness, creativity (science prizes), if I read the list correctly. The two on Bernie’s list who were Muslims, not just temporarily trapped in Muslim-dominated societies, had to escape to the West to make their mark.
Yeh, there was another Muslim winner in Literature, but he was stabbed for his blasphemy by… Muslims.
The Muslims who won peace prizes? No creativity there, so no credit is due them for that. What was their genuinbe contribution anyway?
Out of a fifth of the world’s population, one would expect a little creative work, right? Well, unless there were some seriously intervening factor. it’s not Western oppression; it’s their own sick culture.
It seems that it’s not Muslims who are idiots. It’s the culture they live in that’s idiotic.
(Here’s hoping I get some raghead raggers. I just love poking fun at their attempts to make a coherent argument. 1/5 of the world’s population. Approaching close to 1/5 of the world’s illiteracy, too.)
Oh, and just for the fun of it, here’s Mohammed in a Pink Dress again.