re: We will defeat Islamism, the same way we defeated Communism
Communism lost, because it couldn't provide material prosperity. The contrast between N and S Korea, E and W Germany, China and Taiwan, was what discredited the Communists.
Both the Islamists and the Communists have an intricate, internally consistent ideology, which (if you accept their initial assumptions) has an answer for everything, and cannot be proven wrong. In the end, belief in both is a matter of faith. But the faith will wither, if it produces poverty. Faith cannot be sustained forever, in the absence of any tangible benefits for believers.
So far, the evidence is that Islamist governments will produce poverty. The brief Taliban reign, and the longer Islamic experiment in Iran, would be more useful in discrediting Islamism, except that the non-Islamist governments they replaced didn't produce prosperity, either. The economic failure of the Islamists only works in our favor, if we have contrasting examples, a Better Way to show them. And the examples have to be in Muslim nations.
So far, the best thing available, is Malaysia. The fact that Mahathir regularly irritates Westerners, actually is a good thing, making him more credible to the Muslim world. The level of estrangement is so high, any non-Muslim nation, leader, or ideology is automatically rejected, as a potential example to follow. |
