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2005-10-20 Home Front: WoT

Ledeen: The Light and Dark Sides of the War on Terrorism

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Posted by tipper 2005-10-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Unless it goes through a number of contortions, Islam â of virtually any flavor â is incompatible with democracy due to its insistence that rights not only derive from God (a belief we share) but that only holy men are qualified to interpret God's will

That actually ain't the problem. The problem is the core belief in Islam that humanity is not capable of governing itself. I'm not talking about morality and religious ritual -- Judaism and Christianity both have their own codes for those, but also recognize that people have the ability to agree upon a set of rules outside of those from the divine and that those rules -- unless unjust in very specific and limited ways -- are as morally binding as the core requirements of the religion.

The Islamic theory is that man-made laws are meaningless; the only meaningful law is sharia. *THAT* is incompatible with democracy.

Following that's the "inshallah" attitude at its philosophical core. The Judaic and Christian tradition is that God made the physical laws and, excepting very limited examples of miracles, He also obeys them. The Islamic tradition is that everything happens because Allah wills it so; if the same thing happens every time you try X it's because Allah made the same decision every time.

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2005-10-20 08:04|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-10-20 08:04|| Front Page Top

#2 There were a LOT more checks and balances in the Louis XIV regime than people (specially non-French) know and also much more than in your average Muslim sultanacy (1).

(1) Hint: When a minister was suspected of stealing from public treasure or when people tried to poison him, he couldn't just have all suspects and their relatives to the third generation be impaled and do away with it like it would have happenned in Turkey. He had to have them tried and some were released. Many of teh actions perpetrated openly by your average sultan (or Arab dictator) would have cased Louis XIV to be declared demented or unfit to rule and deposed.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2005-10-20 11:05|| 2005-10-20 11:05|| Front Page Top

#3 From my simpleton point of view, the problem with Islam is the "I'm right, you're wrong, (and hence in most cases you must die)" attitude. If they only got over that hurdle, the rest would fall into place, including the democracy thingie and personal liberty. Humility is the key.

Posted by Rafael 2005-10-20 14:53|| 2005-10-20 14:53|| Front Page Top

#4 be a cold f*cking day in hell before I bow to any islamist punk imam.

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-10-20 15:48|| 2005-10-20 15:48|| Front Page Top

#5 Louis XIV got away with it, mainly because of his wardrobe, I think,

I would argue that it was because he threw fabulous parties, but otherwise Heah, heah!

Posted by trailing wife 2005-10-20 23:11|| 2005-10-20 23:11|| Front Page Top

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