It happens everywhere, not only in the middle east, not only with religion. People who crave control rise to the top, apply tight control to stay there, kill creativity in the process.
There is nothing about authoritarian regimes which prevents them from making scientific progress. See e.g. China, a society with substantial authoritarian features, a massive surveillance state and one party rule. At the same time they became one of the best manufacturers of everything in the world. Within a decade they built up a world class car industry, which both the US and the EU had to ban from competing.
Few other sources of dysfunction come with organized cultural generational reinforcement practices, systemic social respect and judgement, daily personal energy investment, family and friendship bonds, and both elite and grassroots level power classes that a religion can create. Not to mention the afterlife plans and ancestor reunions.
Note how reliably political polarization is associated with one or both sides weaving the sticky glue of religion into completely unrelated (and blatantly contradictory) partisan identities.