> could have made the same argument about China, India, or South Korea in the 1960s
China, sure. They rapidly course corrected. India and Korea didn't have prominent anti-intellectual movements.
> Arab world was basically in a state of managed chaos from the mid-19th century to present due to colonialism
It would be fair to characterise the region that way going back to the Bronze Age.
> it's not Islam related based on Turkey and Malaysia's relatively decent R&D capacity
The article seems to go out of its way to restrict its arguments to the Arabic world, not Islam in general. (Its arguments are also strongest in the pre-modern world, proximate to Islam's Golden Age.)
China, sure. They rapidly course corrected. India and Korea didn't have prominent anti-intellectual movements.
> Arab world was basically in a state of managed chaos from the mid-19th century to present due to colonialism
It would be fair to characterise the region that way going back to the Bronze Age.
> it's not Islam related based on Turkey and Malaysia's relatively decent R&D capacity
The article seems to go out of its way to restrict its arguments to the Arabic world, not Islam in general. (Its arguments are also strongest in the pre-modern world, proximate to Islam's Golden Age.)