"We haven't even begun, because we have yet to acknowledge that we are backward."

Following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi Shura Council member Ibrahim Al-Buleihi, which aired on Rotana Khalijiya TV and was posted on the Internet on July 23, 2012.

Interviewer: We Arabs are a consumer society, even though there has been some change. But to what extent? Are we about to leave our backwardness?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: Oh no, we haven't even begun, because we have yet to acknowledge that we are backward. Perhaps 10-20% of the people are aware of this backwardness, but the majority do not even realize it.

Interviewer: So our problem is that we are backward and don't know it...

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: Exactly, we don't know that we are backward. On the contrary, we treat [Western] people are if they were carpenters or blacksmiths. We treat the people who created this great and lofty civilization as if they were carpenters and blacksmiths. We view them as mere laborers, while we consider ourselves to be men of thought, science, and culture, who embody everything you aspire to in life. This is the exact opposite of how things should be.

Interviewer: Why are you so pessimistic?

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: That's the reality. If we were to send back to the prosperous [West] everything we got from it, what would be left? Even the 'Aqqal headband you are wearing was made in Britain. We are incapable of producing anything.

We can't do without [the West]. If you have a headache, you need to swallow the aspirin that they made. If you want to travel, you must take a plane or a car, if you want to get some sleep, you must turn on the airconditioning, and the same is true of all the implements of civilization.

Interviewer: Civilizations complement one another...

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: Complement?! What have we given them?

Interviewer: Oil, the religion of Islam...

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi: The oil came from Allah, and on top of that, we need the West to extract it. If not for their industry, our oil would be worthless. It had been in this land for centuries, yet we did not benefit from it in any way. Oil became valuable only when others came up with inventions, and later came here to extract it from our land.

backward."