Does humanity deserve Corona?

[Mr Greene]

I agree! When examining issues about governance in the Muslim world, we need evidence. Not just unsupported assertions. For example:

You asserted that Muslims are forbidden from using interest in banking. As counter-evidence against this claim, I can offer several facts. 

Here is the page from the national Bank of Bangladesh showing current interest rates:
https://www.bb.org.bd/econdata/intrate.php

Here is the page from the CEIC on long term interest rates in Bangladesh:
https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/ba...erest-rate

Here is an article from the Daily Star newspaper in Bangladesh on how interest rates on savings deposits decreased, causing anger and alarm among depositors. If all the depositors thought that interest was forbidden by their religion, they would not have opposed a rate drop:
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/de...nt-1847881

So at least one of your assertions does not survive scrutiny. The government, banks, and investors in at least one Muslim-majority country have no problem with interest. For your assertion, that Islam forbids interest, to be persuasive I think you'll have to offer some pretty strong counter-evidence. 

You have also asserted that majority Muslim former colonies have failed economically due to Islamic rules about finance. Other than the law against interest, which has now been shown to be not in force, you haven't pointed to any Muslim rules that cause such failure. Meanwhile, it's obvious that many many non-Muslim-majority countries have economic difficulties due to interference from more powerful countries. To show that such interference is NOT a factor in poor Muslim countries will require strong counter-evidence. 

You assert without evidence that Muslims are considered high-risk for bank loans. I don't know how to discover the banks' lending policies, and I'm pretty sure that a bank in the US which discriminated on the basis of religion would not advertise that fact. As evidence, though, that Muslims participate normally in the banking systems I can point to the millions of successful Muslim businessmen in the US, in Britain, in Europe, in the more peaceful countries of the Middle East, etc. Are they able to start businesses with out bank loans? To show that banks are unwilling to take them as clients will require strong evidence from you. 

In addition, I can continue to point to Muslim-majority countries whose economies are in bad condition due to obvious interference from stronger countries. Iran is the obvious case in point, since the US continues to enforce broad sanctions against them, including on needed medical equipment in times of pandemic. You will need to show strong evidence to persuade us that US interference is not a strong factor in the weakness of the Iranian economy.

In short, the meme you post is very relevant, if you accept that you are Ken Ham in this thread, and I am the one demanding and offering evidence. I suspect you are actually better looking than Ken Ham, however, and if you do become interested in offering evidence in addition to your assertions, I promise to read it.

So banks in Islamic countries now are offering loans where the interest is visible which is a more honest position than the one offered by Sharia compliant banks;

Ijara, Ijara-wa-iqtina, Mudaraba, Murabaha and Musharaka

These are financial products where the interest charged is hidden from the customer, as such the system is intrinsically dishonest which is a dangerous procedure to adopt as policy.

Presumably the customers realise they are being charged interest, (they aren't stupid) though the merry-go-round forced by Sharia makes it harder to figure out what is being charged and the culture of dishonesty generated has a corrupting effect amongst those who are responsible for muslim peoples finances.

As for the original claim regarding imperialism; Are you saying that Ottoman imperialism oppressed the Arab people to the point that they rose up and fought for liberty against their oppressors even though the Ottoman forces were equipped with modern weaponry including aircraft, artillery and machine guns, and their repression of the Arabs financial capacity has a lasting effect on Arab economies today?