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There was a time that the Western world was not all that different from the Islamic world of today. Perhaps we expect too much to change too quickly over there in a fast paced world when it took our civilizations centuries to get over practical rule by the Church, either with or over the kings and emperors of Europe. Even now there are remains of the vocal Christians that would rather rule by the Bible than by the laws and governments of today.
The Islamic countries and empires use to be ahead of the Europeans when the Europeans were more dominated by the Church than by the governements. But those days have past several hundred years ago. It is entirely possible the European managed to crack the old Muslim states and "blow them back into an earlier age" via Imperialsim and the fall of basically all the old Muslim states by the end of the First World War. While European control over them was not all that long (historically speaking) it seems to have been enough to break them into whatever they have become today.
The Islamic counties of today seem like they are not as well off, culturally, as they were in their prime. Maybe the religious sects have too much power or hold on the people and governments verses back in the day? Sure some countries have taken advantage of Western culture and uplifted so to speak, but others have regressed even more it would seem.
It doesn't help that Islam and Arab are almost interchangable in today's political climate. Some Islamic counties outside the Middle East seem to be doing fine in controlling their more religious half. But the Arabs and Persians seem to be having issues (the Turks to a much lesser extent). It doesn't help that one of the sterotypes for Arabs (and Jews for that matter) is that they like to argue or haggle on everything. Sometimes it isn't a fight they want, just they seem programmed to argue over stuff. It is a stereotype. However, one that, at least on the surface, makes sense.
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