Why do countries with a Muslim majority population exhibit lower levels of democracy and socioeconomic development compared to the global average? This book critiques explanations that cite Islam as the cause of this inequality, arguing that Muslims were philosophically and socioeconomically more advanced than Western Europeans between the 9th and 12th centuries. Furthermore, Western colonialism was not the root cause: Muslims were already suffering from political and socioeconomic issues when colonization began.

The book argues that during their early history, when religious orthodoxy and military rule prevailed in Europe, Muslims had influential thinkers and merchants. However, in the 11th century, an alliance formed between orthodox Islamic scholars (the Ulema) and military states. This alliance gradually stifled intellectual and economic creativity by marginalizing the intellectual and civic classes in the Muslim world. This alliance continues to hinder creativity and competition in Muslim countries today.

The raw draft of the German translation was produced by a machine translation program using artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision focused primarily on content, meaning that the book will read stylistically differently than a conventional translation.