When Muslim radicals and fundamentalists look at the West, they see only the openness that makes us, in their eyes, decadent and promiscuous. They see only the openness that has produced Britney Spears and Janet Jackson. They do not see, and do not want to see, the openness - the freedom of thought and inquiry - that has made us powerful, the openness that has produced Bill Gates and Sally Ride. They deliberately define it all as decadence. Because if openness, women's empowerment, and freedom of thought and inquiry are the real sources of the West's economic strength, then the Arab-Muslim world would have to change. And the fundamentalists and extremists do not want to change. Thomas L. Friedman
About This Quote

In this quote, the author, a Muslim scholar, says that fundamentalists and extremists see the Western world as a decadent society that is corrupted by women's empowerment and freedom of thought and inquiry. He says the fundamentalists and extremists do not want to see these things because these things would make them weaker. The extremists and fundamentalists want to keep their power over the Arab-Muslim world by keeping its citizens weak.

Source: The World Is Flat: A Brief History Of The Twentyfirst Century

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