Kumar,
but the ME is not the focus that I have in mind for discussion on this thread - its wider global foreign policies.
Unfortunately, the ME is going to be the focus of most global foreign policy. To be frank, that's "where the action" is at the moment with GFP..
And if it isn't the ME, it's Darfur, which also has religious and ethnic overtones.
What are we going to talk about, if not the ME? Heck, I posted something about Zapatero's inane immigration policy, but then again, that deals with Muslims immigrating to Europe and disrupting the demographic structure of that region.
You know that when I discuss Islamic Fundamentalism, I couch it in a demographic, political, and socio-economic framework that has enable it's rise. Religious fanaticism does not manifest itself in a vacuum. It is the result of deep disaffection of those adherents who see the corruption and hypocrisy of the totalitarian regimes. They see that marxism, and capitalism has failed to either improve the lot of the average human being, and/or debased their cultural and moral values in the process.
Thus, we cannot ignore discussing religion in the context of what's transpiring in the ME. But neither should we ignore the efforts of moderates to provide a viable alternative to such reactionary thinking.
This is what I would like to discuss, but maybe it's just my personal bias. I want to know what policies we should be advising regional governments in the ME to implement that will counteract the onset of this religious reactionary fanaticism.
But I'm well aware that there are other global FP issues that need to be discussed and I think that it's valuable to present them here, if only so we don't forget the world doesn't revolve around the ME.
Hawk |
