Is real progress in the region possible while fundamentalist clerics are making all the real decisions? Is true integration with the global community possible while they cling so desperately to Sharia (Islamic Law?)
If so, how does a nation break the hold of religion on a largely uneducated population?
2006-12-29 12:08:23 · 6 answers · asked by cailano 6 in Politics & Government ➔ Other - Politics & Government
Real progress rarely comes hand in hand with conservative, fundamentalist, faith-powered values. The problem is that extremsist religion doesn't allow room for compromise, which doesn't allow for true integration with the global community. It's hard to be integrated when you're mostly interested in smiting the unbelievers.
Frankly, I don't think that the people in question are raised to believe in compromise any more than the fundamentalist Christians in America are raised to agree with Darwin. Do you think that choosing to ignore a scientific theory which has been proven countless times is scary? That choice is made by educated people. They know the alternatives. They've been taught them, and they willfully reject them. They're a minority.
Now imagine that they're not so well educated, that they're the majority, that they don't really know the alternatives as anything but distant, repulsive, and barbaric ideas. Do you really think that kind of conviction is easily broken? Absolutely not.
There's a Georgian mom trying to get the Harry Potter books banned from her county's schools. They promote witchcraft and Devil worship, apparently. Do you think that woman is ever going to say, "I guess those books are okay after all" and let her kids read them? No. The most that would happen is that the kids start to resent her oppressive mothering and decide to read the books anyway.
Which is a pretty good analogy, actually, as to what will have to happen before people start to change their minds in the Middle East. They have to know that the conviction with which they were raised is not necessarily the only right belief, and they have to want things to change enough that they rebel.
I think it'll take a lot more than peaceful integration. Before those countries start to agree with each other, let alone with the global community, there's going to be a lot of bloodshed, maybe brought in by imperialistic countries looking for a few more years worth of oil, maybe from within.
2006-12-30 07:53:11 · answer #1 · answered by megan_of_the_swamp 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The answer is simple, it will never be broken. You can't change an entire regions belief system. They can, however, become integrated into the global community, but only if done with great care.
2006-12-29 20:19:38 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
All good questions. Have you read Natan Sharansky's "The Case for Democracy"?
Afghanistan was a terrible theocracy, and we toppled them. Of course, they are not quite a free society now, but perhaps in time they will be. Perhaps the Afghanis are still too afraid (of the religious extremists) to vote against sharia.
Saddam wasn't theocratic, but he was a dictator, still extremely bad.
There are rumblings of popular uprising in Iran.
I don't know that these people are largely uneducated.
I hope Bush's plan works. It certainly will take much time and much bloodshed (as he has warned us). But I know of no better plan.
2006-12-29 20:19:38 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In Europe, the Inquisition used to burn alive people, who claimed that the Earth rotates around the Sun. Now, the Europeans even do not have the death penalty any more. Things do change. In the ME, it won't happen any time soon, though.
2006-12-29 20:26:20 · answer #4 · answered by rp121121 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the islamic law the clerics now is bastardized , self serving ....true islam preaches peace
2006-12-29 20:25:21 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would be more worried about the one that is trying to rear its head here on this side of the globe!
2006-12-29 20:28:15 · answer #6 · answered by qncyguy21 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋