In the Middle East, the Orthodox were long the least monastic of the major churches in the region and were never dominated in day-to-day life by monastic clergy in the same way the Maronites and Syriacs still are. Even going back to the Middle Ages, there were many instances of laymen (such as the martyr Christopher, d. 967) or widowed clergy (such as Macarius III ibn al-Za'im, d. 1672) being elected patriarch of Antioch.
Two major factors that greatly reduced monasticism during the Ottoman period were the schism with the Catholics, where the more educated and western-oriented monks (such as those at who founded the monasteries of Choueir and Mar Mukhalles) were major proponents of the Unia, and then durng the Greek xenocracy, where native monks were seen as potential rivals (and all Arabs as potential Catholics), and thus were discouraged from religious life, as still happens in Jerusalem.
By the early 20th century, there was basically no male monasticism in the Patriarchate of Antioch. It would only be revived in a sustainable way with the establishment of the Orthodox Youth Movement, which led to the re-foundation of Deir el-Harf in the 1960s. Most of the really glaring differences between the Antiochian Archdiocese in North America and the Patriarchate as it exists in Syria and Lebanon is due to the Youth Movement never having a presence in the US and Metropolitan Philip's very divergent vision of a vaguely Episcopalianized Orthodoxy.
Any blame for a lack Bishops in the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America should be place squarely upon the Holy Synod of Antioch.
Generally speaking, monasteries are initiatives of local bishops, as in the case of the plan for
a new Antiochian women's monastery in Germany. I know Bp Basil in Wichita has attempted to start a monastery at one point, but I don't know what became of it.
could it be that the decision of not having monasteries would be meant to appear less infidel to Antykia's Islamist neighbours?
I've never heard of anything like this in the Middle East. Muslims in Syria and Lebanon are quite used to monasteries as part of the local landscape and Saydnaya is even a famous pilgrimage site for Muslim women.
