“Promoting democracy and modernisation in the Middle East is not a solution to jihadist terrorism. Radical Islamism arises from the loss of identity that accompanies the transition to a modern, pluralist society. More democracy will mean more alienation, radicalisation and terrorism.” – Francis Fukuyama
I don’t see the link between alienation and democracy; for example, Iceland and Sweden are among the most modern of ‘democratic’ nations, and no one should claim that their citizens are not homogeneous and agreeable.
The pluralism or mult-ethinites of places like Iraq supercedes the latest trappings of ‘democracy’ (sham elections) and will exist regardless of the the political structure. just because one ‘team’ has dominated the system does not mean that alienation/anger does not exist (peep bombing of Golden Mosque in Samarra); it just kept anyone from doing anything about his/her alienation. If they want people to get together, they need to outlaw cars and distribute huffys
Is this guy saying that democracy only works where there is one (1) group of people in the nation? See: United States
Sauce…
I beleive what he is saying is that the more Islam (and really any fundamentalists) are exposed to a culture that is “for the people by the people” the fundamentalists will feel more and more alienated as rational people will rarely choose arcane antiquated oppressive religious rule.
You can read his article here-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1715179,00.html
fundamentalists desire alienation, they would lose their entire raison d’etre if the entire population abided by their laws. what is more interesting are the endeavours of the fanatical christian right in our country now, who are currently in charge of the government, to artificially create an alienated victim status for themselves; the more they become the status quo the stronger they perceive threats that are as minimal as someone wanting to say that the world is more than 3k years old, or to buy chianti on sunday.
there were a lot of big words i didnt understand. can i still hate arabs?
hmmm, put together jjj’s boy and ‘j‘ make a good point; when no one has any rights or outlet for expression, it is difficult to ga[u]ge what a nut case one truly is. if we didn’t have elections and free press in the united states, jerry falwell never would have sussed out how insane he is. though we have proven a high tolerance for insanity in this country, he feels threatened nonetheless and builds a crew of minions to protect him.
maybe it is best to ignore radical-fundie xians when you encounter them in the wild; it is only when they are poked with rods or lions that they realize that they are a minority and fight back and organize overly-represented form letter-sending militias to cow state gov’ts and disney into doing their bidding.
‘praise the lord and pass the ammunition’
also, chiati seems to be open on sunday, j?
edit:
also, chinati seems to be open on sunday, j?
id like to see them try that in jeorjia!