I've been saying this for years! Some sheikhs agree, but they're too fixated on heaven and say that path will lead to the destruction of morality.

the bottom line is that muslim countries, even the not so conservative ones, have terrible problem solving skills outside their generally bad leadership. There are way too many restrictions in their rulings. Im not talking about definitive things here.

for example:

Imagine you have a scenario where most people in your country travel abroad during ramadan. You see this as a problem, because the citizens may be taking advantage of more relaxed work environment to vacation and to persumably escape the religious observance. What do you do? The ulama would probably issue travel bans on every citizen in the country.

These restrictions of freedom create a consumerist societies, which is arguably unislamic politics. My experience in the Gulf is that people are so bored with everything that they end up spending so much time on the internet. Their entire lives surround watching films, playing video games, eating out at restaurants, walking around in a mall, driving around to show off their car, etc (from the top of my head). Now its important not to generalize, i know, and my point is based on a made up scenario from my observances, but yeah whatever. The more time people spend on the internet will have dramatic effects to behavior & outlook. (Ulama decides to ban the internet lol)

Muslim societies need some cultural dialogue outside of religion for a while that will in turn help Islam as it will allow human capital to develop, but that will never be allowed to happen. The constant braindrain of these societies will be the death of it, and surely you can point your fingers at the religious leaders for that. Islamists vs nationalists have been fighting in the middle of hokey politics for anything substantial to happen.

ALL muslim societies will turn into secular neoliberal states. ALL of them, because the Ulama are backwards. They need to change first. The most important change would be to make it illegal for any Imam or Sheikh to be a public islamic figure without having an advanced degree in some form of natural science.