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

To: RetiredNow who wrote (220830)	2/25/2005 9:07:56 AM
From: Elroy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573439

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. This is hard to prove. Why do you believe it? If it were true, there would probably have been some discussion of it prior to the invasion of Iraq. And if the vast majority wanted it that much, they would have gotten it by now. In the recent Saudi "election" (where they got to elect half of the municipal legislatures and the other half are appointed), the Ismalist won handily. Now if the Islamists were given any real power, they would likely quickly head toward and Iranian type of system where any non-Islamic candidate is not allowed to run. I would say in the ME most people would like to be in charge, not that most would like democracy.......None of the current leaders want democracy, because they might lose their rule. As for the non-rulers, I would bet they'd rather be in charge than have elections, because they probably think they haven't got a chance to win. " 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." Well I don't know exact numbers on people living under democracies, but I figured China aint, Russia aint, the ME aint, most of Africa doesn't seem to be, so it seems the exception rather the rule. Contrary to the uninformed, Democracy is not contrary to Islamic law. Depends on who's interpretation of Islamic law. Lots of Muslims disagree on this, you know. If the Ismalists say women can't drive, and the legislature says they can drive, how do you get around the democratically elected legislature enacting rules which violate the local clergy's understanding of Islamic law???

To: RetiredNow who wrote (220830)	2/25/2005 1:46:23 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573439

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." This is not true. Even some of the former eastern European satellites are not there yet. And some are decidedly undemocratic like Albania and Belarus. There are other countries that claim they are democracies like Lebanon but still have restrictions on certain freedoms. Sorry but I think Freedom House is a neocon spin shop. ted