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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Sun Tzu who wrote (119397)11/13/2003 5:02:44 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
Islamic societies have deteriorated for the same reasons that Europe sank into the dark ages. They stopped freedom and equality and got tangled more with tradition than wisdom of those traditions.

I'm unsure about any "freedom and equality" in pre-dark-ages Europe, but in any case, Islamic societies are going to go the way of the Church when Europe exited from the Middle Ages. And in a lot less time. They will reform or be doomed, it's as simple as that. Our adventuring in Iraq won't make any difference in the long term outcome.

All of these established religions were "theories of everything" from times when there was simply no scientific tradition to promote a rational world view, and are based more on wishful thinking than observed reality. The earth being the center of the universe is the classic from the Christian era.

But the "observed reality" that will really make the difference this century is that China will become the world economic and probably technological leader, and alternative energy sources will be found as the need becomes pressing, cutting off the easy money behind the worst of the obscurantist Islamic variants. This will ultimately bring the badly needed reform, where about everything else will fail.

Note well that when I say "reform", I don't mean throwing everything out as in some kind of revolution and anarchy.
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