Moslem intellectual property rights -- an oxymoron?

By Aussiegirl

Lifson makes some excellent points here, and what he finds only underscores the history of Islam throughout the ages. The so-called flowering of Islam in previous centuries, when we are led to believe that Islam was an enlightened culture that tolerated different religions and even benefited science, is a myth. In reality Islam always coasted on the achievements of the civilizations it conquered. Even the concept of zero is an Indian invention, not Arabic. As far as they are concerned, mankind needs nothing but the Koran. They'll happily live off the legacy of Western Civilization until it all grinds down, and then they'll live among the goats and sheep and drag everyone down with them -- if we let them.

The American Thinker

It becomes clearer with every day that the Islamist faction within the Muslim world has an idealized vision of society entirely at odds with foundations of American society, and with the values of modern civilization. Free speech (including cartoon speech), religious pluralism, or female equality are only starters, important though each of these principles may be to us.

The Islamist vision of the society to which all infidels will have to submit eventually is also profoundly hostile to improvements in technology.[...] Recently, I was reading an Islamist website and discovered the following logo in an advertising-like box:

“Oppose Intellectual Property”

It turns out that the very internet which is powering so much innovation and efficiency is being used to build a political movement to destroy all technological dynamism. These guys may be crazy, but they are smart. Intellectual property is the bedrock foundation of modern life.

Without the ability to protect (and profit from) intellectual property, there will be no innovation. Nobody will have an incentive to do things differently from the way they have always been done. The phrase for such a world is The Dark Ages.[...]At its heart, the Islamist vision is opposed to all technological change. Rather than a society characterized by continuing discoveries in medicine, telecommunications advances and new applications of micro-electronics to further delight the mind and body, these Islamists prefer (or think they prefer) a steady state society, roughly fixed at the seventh century, when Muhammad received divine revelations and laid down the optimal way to govern human existence for all time.[...]If they get their way, do they envision getting rid of all post-800 AD innovations? Or will they try to hold onto what exists, while allowing no further innovation? The mind boggles. Who will train the air conditioner repair men? How will they keep up with what already exists if nobody is interested extending in such knowledge? Everyone might as well just study the Koran in madrassas.

And that is the point