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

To: Dayuhan who wrote (98602)	5/19/2003 9:26:34 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Steve, Islamic Fundamentalism is based on the Koran's position that there is no separation between Church and State. There is no "mind/body dichotomy" in Islam. Christianity is based on "Render unto Caesar." There have been a lot of Christian Theocracies, but they have lost out. Islam is a much more difficult knot on this question.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (98602)	5/20/2003 4:02:31 PM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Pakistan is a failing state - I wouldn't say "failed" yet - not because of the military, or the mullahs, but because every attempt at civilian government has been dominated by the same old feudal elites. The result has been totally ineffective, wildly corrupt government, and that in turn has opened the door to the military. The military has done little better, and that has opened the door for the mullahs As a Pakistani columnist (of military background) pointed out a long time ago, the response to an elected government which is inadequate, is another election. The formal democratic structures Pakistan had in place have never been allowed to work. The military has always interferred and democracy has not been allowed to play out. Furthermore, the miltary regimes which have led Pakistan to its present awful position were every bit as corrupt and administratively incompetent as the civilian governments they deposed. It was the military under the Zia regime which invited the mullahs in and allowed the external (mostly Saudi) financing of the fundamentalist madrassas now infesting the place. It was the military regimes which allowed the trashing of secular schools. It was the military that put fundamentalists in the security service and army. It was the military which allowed the partial imposition of sharia. The single largest looter and pillager of the Pakistani economy is the military. The leaders of the military are members of (as you call it) the "feudal elite." In fact they went to the same schools as the civilian leadership. There was no "power vacuum" as such. The military suffered from hubris and did not let democrats go through their messy process. Instead of letting trashy governments fail and elections replace them, the military staged putsches. When the military government incompetence became too apparent, they then attempted to put in place a government headed by yet some other member of the "feudal elite," which would eventually have been modified or replaced in democratic circumstances.