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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (220824)	2/25/2005 6:50:13 AM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573433

Two rebuttals: 1) the only resistance to democracy in the Middle East is coming from the current despots, theocrats, and Al Qaeda-style terrorists. The vast majority of Muslims in the Middle East want and deserve Democracy. 2) Democracy is not the exception in the world, it is fast becoming the rule. To wit: freedomhouse.org " By the close of our century liberal and electoral democracies clearly predominate, and have expanded significantly in the Third Wave, which has brought democracy to much of the post-Communist world and to Latin America and parts of Asia and Africa. Electoral democracies now represent 120 of the 192 existing countries and constitute 62.5 percent of the world’s population." Not sure how you missed it, Elroy, but Democracy has become very wide-spread and more and more countries are insisting on their Democratic rights. I think you might have missed the recent Ukrainian election and the peaceful Democratic uprising to dispute the results. You might also have missed recent events in Lebanon for the same purpose. You might also have missed the fact that 60%+ Iraqis braved suicide bombers to claim their right to vote in their own Democratic election. Yes, even Muslims want and are demanding the basic human right of choosing their own leadership in a free election. Contrary to the uninformed, Democracy is not contrary to Islamic law. Democracy is complementary. You can have an Islamic Democracy. It's not about what laws are passed to guide the country. It's about the right of the people to replace their leaders and/or change laws they don't agree with, without fear of political repercussions, retribution, or persecution. Here's the latest report: freedomhouse.org

To: Elroy who wrote (220824)	2/25/2005 1:16:16 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573433

I just don't buy into that common liberal argument that Democracy is an imposition on Muslims and that somehow Muslims are different than the rest of humanity or that Muslims are incapable of Democracy. I just don't buy it. Whether you buy it or not is not the point, the view is that a "good Muslim" will choose to organize society based on religious law as laid out in Sharia and defined by the clergy, and that means the clergy make the laws, not a democratically elected secular leader. That's not a "liberal argument", it's an understanding of one of the causes of resistance to democracy in the ME. There are other obstacles of course (primarily being that dictators don't freely give up their power), but that's the religous one. I think there was the same situation in England hundreds of years ago when they king was the head of the church. How could the population choose someone other than the head of the church to make society's rules?? As far as Muslims being different from the rest of humanity, remember democracy is the exception on the planet, not the rule . Great points.....well said. I think part of the reason why some people suffer under the misconception that democracy, once planted, will act like the flu and spread throughout the ME is because they don't fully understand the role religion plays in the life of the average Muslim. Like blacks in this country, Muslims turn to religion as a counterbalance to the hardships and deprivations they must go through on a daily basis. All of this sudden interest in democracy is great but its not the first time that ME people and their leaders alike have made vague promises to move towards democracy. However, the reality is that for the leaders, democracy is not in their best interest, and for the people, they can't seem to get it together to make it happen for any number of reasons. I firmly believe for democracy to really work, it has to come from the people. That's why I think democracy is floundering in Russia............because it did not come from the people but rather from one or two leaders. FWIW. ted