Islamic Spring....or Theocratic Winter ?

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Will the "hoped-for" espousement of democracy in the Middle East by the Western powers have the opposite effect of paving the way for Islamic theocracies to appear in these states ? It seems that the Islamic conservative fundamentalists have been given an opportunity to further their case in a way that was not as open as it is at present.

 

[kylemore]

Will the "hoped-for" espousement of democracy in the Middle East by the Western powers have the opposite effect of paving the way for Islamic theocracies to appear in these states ? It seems that the Islamic conservative fundamentalists have been given an opportunity to further their case in a way that was not as open as it is at present.

I'm glad you put the "hoped-for" in quotes!

All that the "Western Powers" have achieved is to turn everywhere they have touched in the middle east into varying levels of Hell for the inhabitants.

No wonder the people of Syria are fighting tooth and nail to resist the scum that the "Western Powers" are intent on imposing on them!

 

[SS4]

The trouble with theocracies is that someone is always left on the sidelines - there's a good reason why large tracts of developed countries are secular.
There is always the worry that the government and the religion will merge and to attack the government is to attack the religion which leads to a loss of political freedom and civil rights.

It seemed obvious to me that it was coming. Killing political opponents in the name of counter-insurgency is nothing new and as Stalin showed us they don't have to be real threats to the state to bump them off.

 

[Oswyntail]

The critical question, surely, is whether democracy - or the version espoused by many "developed" states is either the right system for all states or even counter-productive. For instance, in the UK we have a functioning mixture of representational democracy and monarchy (no, please no discussions about how to improve that), that is rooted deep in our history and national psyche. If another power used armed "persuasion" to get us to change that system to, say, a well-run military junta, then I suspect that even the more right-wing among us would resist. We are seeking to impose an interpretation of democracy on cultures where it is not deeply rooted, and it is perhaps this that is fanning the flames of struggle against "western oppression". Perhaps we should, rather, be more actively engaged in dialogue with states that are unlike ours, rather than just telling them they are wrong and threatening them with violence if they disagree. As sovereign nations, they are entitled to expect us not to interfere actively in their internal affairs - if we find the way they run them abhorrent, we should try to persuade, not crush. [Btw, it is irrelevant whether it is a theocracy, hierarchy, junta or ochlocracy]
Phenomena like Stalin, Hitler or Pol Pot are slightly different, in that they imposed from within a country a system that was itself alien to their country - that is why they needed to be resisted]

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Since the Muslim Brotherhood became the ruling party in Egypt, matters at first seemed to retain the status quo and then in the last few days, the Head of State suddenly announced that he was assuming powers to give him far more powers and to be unaffected by any restrictions of the judiciary of the country. There now seems to be an outpouring of dissent in Egypt from much of the populace that has been well-reported and the judiciary of the country have withdrawn their co-operation.

The matter of what will happen in Syria should the existing regime be toppled is one that comparisons can be drawn. It is interesting to see how Hizb al-Taurir as political party in post-revolution Libya will develop over the coming months, with its ultra hard-line Islamic agenda, with aid from the military cells that follows the ideals of that particular party.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Since my last posting, the move by France to put its ground forces into Mali has seen disturbing escalations in the area seen as the base for Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to be brought to the fore, with the existing Islamic fundamentalists who have been at war with the Algerian state now supplemented by those disenfranchised sections of the former Libyan populace and the Islamic fundamentalists in the north of Mali. It is noticeable that the years of conflict has developed the very hard-line policy of the Algerian Government that has recently revealed itself with their uncompromising method of dealing with the existing situation.

The West sees the possibility of gas and oil installation in that region now being seen as lucrative targets to those who view the West as "Crusaders" and "The Great Satan", even though those two titles refer to totally opposing sections of beliefs.

I still see the Wahabi fundamentalist Islamic system that has its base in Saudi Arabia as being one that the Americans are very quiet indeed about, as they want to keep Saudi Arabia with its current monarchy as being one they see great advantages in retaining the status quo there.

Have any forum members any views on North and sub-Saharan Africa being yet another area of global conflict.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The recent admission by a strong faction of the Syrian rebel force that they bear allegiance to Al-Qaeda is yet another expose of the naive Western Powers aspiration for a democratic take-over by the people of Syria from the Assad regime when what will occur will be totally different.

Al-Qaeda cannot believe their luck that yet another state is now on their "must-have" list with the full backing of their avowed enemies.