Is the rise of Islam the cause for the Intellectual decline of the Middle East?

That's a good question and one I have yet to nail down a cause. Actually, Muslims used to be great mathematicians and scientists. Something horrible happened though and now religious dogma control most of the ME's thinking.

One cause has been attributed to people like Al-Ghazali, an imam from the 1100s who procalimed mathematics and the manipulation of numbers is the work of the devil, which people beleived.

No.

At one time Islam was open to the West and more.

They were a cultural flower in the world.

Then they shut their doors to the West and the rest of the world and have remained virtually the same ever since. That was a sad day for a lot of people.

Maybe they will embrace freedom and equality again.

We'll see.

i think you misunderstand the situation .. many of them used to come over here and get educated because there were great jobs here .. now they go home because there are none and take that higher education with them .. and the US is ranked like 17th globally in education ..