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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: frankw1900 who wrote (55904)	11/6/2002 6:17:59 AM
From: zonder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Re It's not necessary that country have an Ataturk Ataturk was a "unique ruler", as stated in the article to which you replied, because he came to power as a dictator and consequently installed democracy through parliamentary elections. >>The Iranian regime will go down shortly after. Please try to understand that it is quite impossible for a nation without a tradition or even knowledge of democracy to suddenly adopt a democratic system. Ottoman Empire collapsed and Ataturk, who was the head of the resistance army, came to power. There would have been no transition to democracy had he not been inclined to install it. Similarly, the regimes in Iraq or Iran may collapse tomorrow but it will be very difficult to install a democratic regime. >>Secular muslim states do exist Yes but they are quite few. I read in quite a few places that Turkey is the only really secular state in a Muslim country, and the most democratic one, but they had Ataturk to make the transition from monarchy to democracy. I believe he even changed the whole dress code of the country overnight, forbidding the chadors for women and those strange red hats for men, opting for a modern dress code. The feeling I have is that it is unrealistic to expect Middle East countries to all come up with their own Ataturk, who will seize power as a dictator and then give it away and install a democratic system. So they will have to go through their own bloody periods of "Renaissance". They will have to resist and fight against their rulers and the restricting rules of the religion. Islam is currently going through its own "Dark Ages". We will all wait and see how those will end, but my guess it that it will be very bloody.