Muslims can't do democracy
Muslims aren't capable of a successful democracy".
~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2005-08-04 |
| 🗒️ Note: |
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| There's a separate issue on whether Muslims will make a good Democracy. That's a much more nuanced issue since the culture believes in collectivism, and that forcing Islamic values on the people is morally righteous. Islam does not have the same tolerances that Judeo-Christians have towards those not following their sect. But the issue of whether people have the right to Democracy is separate from what kind of Democracy they will create. |
I think the elections proved the myopia of those saying that you can't do Democracy in the Middle East. The truth is Turkey, many Asian Muslim nations, and now Afghanistan and Iraq are democracies, with some thanks belonging to the U.S. and our policies. People that said it would never succeed said the same things about Russians, Asians, Africans, and others.
That being said it isn't sure thing yet either.
Other forms of democracy might not be exactly like ours, but that's the cost of self-rule; we’re fine with that. We didn’t start as a democratic utopia either; we started saying “white land-owners could vote”, and it took 150 years to give non-land- owners, blacks and women the right to vote. So even if the Muslims aren’t quite where the west is today, that’s alright, we can keep our fingers crossed that they’ll get there.
The facts are that more Iraqi's turned out to vote than do in the U.S. or much of Europe, despite the Iraqi's having to face longer lines, terrorists, having to walk miles and risk their lives. So they seem to get democracy good enough.
To all those that have criticized the U.S. and our motives in Iraq, tell it to the Iraqi's that voted that they would have been better off under Saddam. We don’t want a puppet state like most of our detractors have tried to create, or our detractors claimed we'd setup. So those that criticized our motives might want to avoid mirrors, or even be mature and reflect on what we’re actually doing (or what they were advocating), and not what they’ve been saying we’re doing.
But there is a dark side. A democracy is only as good as the culture. 3 wolves and a sheep voting on who is for dinner, is not going to be a successful democracy (from the sheep's point of view). The real debate isn't whether Muslims can do democracy: obviously they can. It's whether middle-eastern culture can give up its tribalism.
If they vote just so one group can tyrannize the others, and tell them what to do (like European or American progressives), then that will lead to resentment, and possibly the failure of the government completely. If they all tolerate corruption, and voting just changes who benefits, then they'll be like some Central/South American and African Countries -- they fail not because of the form of government, but because of the culture's values (tolerance towards corruption).
Conclusion[edit | edit source]
So as they say, "with great power, comes great responsibility". Americans sacrificed our lives, once again, to give Iraq and the Middle East a chance at more power. Whether they will live up to their responsibilities is up to them. Either way. we gave them a chance, and it was the only chance at freedom in their country that most of them will ever have in their lifetimes. So whether you're for or against the war, we tried to do good. Whether it ends well, is up to them.
👁️ See also
- Iraq War - Disagree with American policy or bumbling implementations of that policy. Be anti-war. Just be honest and consistent
- Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 - The war on Islamic terror didn't start on 9/11 and wasn't about Osama Bin Laden, they were symptoms of something bigger.
- Preemptive War - Iraq was the first preemptive war except for all the others.
- Legality of Iraq war - No war is legal or illegal, there's only moral or immoral -- and all wars are immoral (some just more than others).
- Give it more time... - Some have said we should have waited for France or the U.N. to change their minds, or for sanctions to work...
- Violence never solved anything - Some say war/violence is wrong or that it never solves anything. It ended many wars and most mass murderers just fine.
- Bush lied - Bush didn't lie: the world's intelligence disagreed on specifics, but all agreed that Saddam was trying to get WMD's.
- Valerie Plame - Ex-CIA agent lies that she was outted by Bush Admin. Media perpetuates the lies for years.
- Quotes/Iraq War - Leftists want to pretend they had nothing to do with the Iraq War. History (and these quotes) begs to differ.
- Muslims can't do democracy - Muslims aren't capable of a successful democracy".
- Iraq/Set a date for withdrawal - Some claimed we should set a hard date and pull out of Iraq. That's stupid. Never telegraph your moves to the opposition.
- America made Saddam - During the mid 2000's it was popular among the dim of wit, and big of mouth, to claim that Saddam was created by America.
- Iraq is because of Israel-Palestine - Israel/Palestine is a convenient scapegoat for all problems in the middle east. But only rubes buy it as the root problem.
- Iraq is because of oil - All the time I hear people say that the U.S. invaded Iraq because of oil, money, or some other dumber reason. Oil is not a dumb reason.
- The U.S. targeted innocents - I’m flabbergasted that such stupidity is ever said, let alone how often I’ve heard it repeated.
- Iraq War Costs - Everything comes with costs, action or inaction. The price of war, the price of peace.
- Patriot Act - The 2002 version doens't bug me, what it might devolve into does. (Is it a slippery slope).
- Halliburton - NYT invented “evil conspiracy” to pay off a company for cheating us. The rubes believed it.
- Guantanamo - The left made a big deal about Guantanamo, where we had the right to treat people far worse than we did.
- Abu Ghraib - Abu Ghraib was one small group of U.S. Soldiers that something bad things, were caught and punished quickly.
- Security in Iraq - Militarily Iraq was one of the greatest successes in the history of mankind. Sociologically? We'll see.
- Americans are imperialists - People that say Americans are imperialists don’t understand America (or what imperialism means).
- Iraq's impact on Terrorism - Poverty doesn't cause terrorism; totalitarianism and a lack of control does.
- We should have done nothing - Of course we can’t know if doing nothing is ever the better choice or not. But we can look at some facts.
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Tags: Iraq Islam Religion War Iraq War/Falsehoods
