Islam and freedom
Reader comment on item: War against Radical Islamists

Submitted by Glenn Klotz (United States), Jun 17, 2002 at 21:41

I disagree with all three of you. The problem is Islam period. It's no coincidence that only 1 real democracy exists today in the Islamic (Muslim) world (Turkey.) Turkey because of it's secular revolution over 80 yrs. ago and it's constitution from that era which imposed a strict separation between Church (Mosque) and State. As for the rest of the Muslim world you get to take your pick from a grab bag of different forms of tyranny. Be it "Presidents for life" like in Egypt and Syria and Iraq or Kings, Princes and Sultans as in Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Jordan or " Evil Prophets " like in Libya and Iran it's all the same 1 man, 1 family or 1 group (tribe) rule. No free speech , freedom of the press or religion exists. For those of you on the right that think "market economies" always mean freedom guess again because all of these societies are to one degree or another market economies, but none of them are free. So as I see it the problem is far deeper then just radical Islam. It's the lack of any real political freedom in any of these different types of Islamic society. All the various isms that entered this region from the west in the 19th and 20th centuries , Nationalism, constitutionalism, socialism, communism, fascism simply flavored these various types of despotic leadership and none of them penetrated very deeply. The 1 cultural norm they all share however is a common Islamic heritage and it's the dead weight of this tradition which is in my opinion holding these socities back and down. It's Islam that needs to change as did Judaism and Christianity before it. It needs to go through some kind of reformation process before any of these societies can truly enter the "modern age."

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