The pre-colonial Arab society was molded in Islamic environment which forbidden smoking, drinking and even music and dancing. Fifty years ago, before the discovery of oil, the Saudis and the other Gulf Bedouins, However, were illiterate, poverty stricken and extremely backward lot cut away from the rest of the world which never paid any attention to their plight. Those were the days there were no drinking water, electricity, roads, schools or any such basic facility. This lifestyle continued uninterrupted till the discovery of oil on March 4, 1938. The first oil was discovered by the British in 1923 now modern day Dahahran, Dammam Saudi Arabia. Islam, in its proper perspective disappeared from the region under the European colonial rule which could be described as the Dark Age in the Middle East. The Saudi royals are too busy leading supercilious lives of extreme decadence and indulgence with ill- gotten oil money. May that oil be cursed. The late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish once wrote that the Arabs’ state would be better without oil. And so true. It has corrupted the Arabs, allowed for renter-states and provided the basis of rule for awful regimes.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 08:56:27 +0000
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