Dilip Hiro in today’s NYT.
Related Posts
Picture of Some Unspecified Irregularly Occurring Period of Time
Yes Virginia, it is MIT.
Kyrgyz revolution?
The BBC is reporting protests in Osh and Jalalabad in Kyrgyzstan in response to the recent election. Bishkek is brewing. I had put the rumblings going on there as flights of fancy. However, if Osh and Jalalabad are in fact under control of the opposition, this could be a very serious movement. The fact that the Bishkek rally was broken up relatively peacefully I think bodes well for the opposition.
Visual Joke
Have I mentioned I’m a huge Apple fan. And I have a passing interest in politics?
3 thoughts on “Islam and Democracy”
Comments are closed.
A bit ironic that you link to an op/ed by Dilip Hiro that lauds Qatar’s democracy when you also note the banning of your site by that same country. Anyhoo, I don’t know what democracy will look like in Iraq, but I’m baffled Hiro’s optimistic opinion that 1) the country has a chance of remaining unified, and 2) it won’t follow a theocratic model. I want to make it clear that I don’t think Iraq needs to follow a secular, liberal democratic model (which happens to be my preference which is why I live here and not in Saudi Arabia).
I wanted to work on Hiro’s piece a bit, but I knew I wouldn’t get to it immediately, and I thought it was more useful just to get it out there. I liked it because I thought I thought it talked about the various ways Islam fits into government models.
I’m not sure Iraq will stay together without some help. However, I think the administration has enough sense to realize that if Iraq falls apart soon, it will count as a failure. I’m fairly confident that “vilayat-e faqih” will not take hold in Iraq b/c Sistani has come out against it, and was opposed to Khomeini on this point. That, of course, does not preclude a theocracy.
Is free speech a sign of democracy? (Qatar) Remember that recently several ABC affiliates refused to air “Saving Private Ryan” for fear of a government backlash, after two years of showing it. Does that mean we are not a democracy? (Rhetorical interest. Your point is taken.)
Yes, that was pretty lame self-censorship on the part of stations that balked at showing the movie. I agree that free speech is not a sign of democracy, but is a sign of a liberal democracy (as distinguished in Fareed Zakaria’s excellent read, the Future of Freedom). Hiro thinks that Qatar is both.