"I love democracy, whatever that is."
Posted on 01/29/2006 7:27:35 AM PST by Dark Skies
Over four years ago, the world was flabbergasted to watch ululating Palestinians rejoice and cheer for the death of thousands of Americans in 9/11. Despite that the Americans did not hold grudges against them and kept pouring into their coffers one billion dollars a year. The Palestinians rely on two external sources of income: Israeli-collected taxes on Palestinian goods and aid that comes primarily from USA and Europe . They depend on these handouts, without which they won't be able to survive.
The election results of last week show that the anti American and pro terrorist sentiment among the Palestinians is prevalent. The victory of Hamas, a terrorist organization responsible for suicide bombings in Israel and anti Americanism was not a fluke. 77% of the population voted enthusiastically in a very clean and fair election. Hamas won 76 seats compared to Fatah’s 43. Palestinians overwhelmingly chose the members of this terrorist organization as their leaders.
This election, more than anything else, tells us who the Palestinians are and where they stand in regards to terrorism.
Bush presses for democracy in Islamic countries as if democracy is panacea. Democracy is however a double edge sword. Democracy without responsibility can lead to tyranny. There is nothing more dangerous than putting the power in the hands of a people who are not responsible.
Are other Islamic countries ready for democracy? If complete free elections are held today, and people are allowed to choose their own candidates, Osama Bin Laden would probably be elected as the president in several Islamic countries. As for Iraq , although the removal of Saddam was a gain for the world, the future of the Iraqis is less certain.
Not all people know what is good for them. Before empowering them, they must be educated. Rights come with responsibility. Those who are not responsible can't handle their rights and should not have them. This would be like putting a weapon in the hands of a child. He can hurt others and himself too. It is irresponsible to give rights to those who are not responsible.
Among all the Islamic countries, perhaps Iran is the only one that is ready for democracy. And that is because the Iranians have learned their lesson the hard way. Even there, it won’t be easy, as they hardly know what democracy means. Twenty seven years ago, the Iranians seized the power with great jubilee and handed it to the Islamists. Soon their jubilee turned into grief and they have shed a thousand tears of regret, ever since. They have not stopped cursing themselves for acting irresponsibly. Today, given the chance, they may act differently. But alas they do not have that luxury anymore.
The solution to the problems in Islamic counties is democracy. But before you hand people that awesome power, you must prepare them for it.
Aristotle understood the danger of democracy when people are not yet ready for self rule. The peripatetic philosopher was not against democracy. He suggested a sound balance between two extremes – one that romanticizes the rule of people and the other that advocates the governance of the elite that underrate them.
The masses are not always right. It is cruel to let people self –rule when they are not ready for it and have no understanding of democracy. They can end up hurting themselves and others. The tyrannical regimes of the Nazis, the Bolsheviks and the Iranian Islamists were all born out of popular votes. Yet no one would call them democratic.
Self-rule under law is better than all compelling forms of governments. However, democracy cannot be imposed universally. It must arise out of cultural and historical traditions of the people or it will fall into tyranny.
Islamic ethos is theocratic. A theocratic democracy makes as much sense as a round square. To have true democracy in Islamic countries, candidates and parties running with religious platforms must be disqualified. But if you limit the people’s choices to vote for their own candidates it won’t be democracy anymore.
In countries where people are Islamists, democracy cannot take root. Before we can promote democracy, the Islamic ethos must be replaced with the rule of law, respect for the rights of the minorities and the separation of religion from government. In other worlds these countries must be deislamized.
This is much easier said than done. Islam is political by its very nature. You can’t have it in any other way. The whole raison d'être of Islam is to take over the world, establish the Khilaft and rule it on behalf of Allah. Islam is not just a religion, but it is believed by Muslims to be the perfect way of life and governance. How can they keep their faith and distance themselves from it and its goal in their political life? This would be the cause of cognitive dissonance – the discomfort felt when facing a discrepancy between what one believes to be true and something that defies that belief. It is natural that one would want to reject any new idea to keep one’s faith.
What kind of commitment to democracy and democratic values can we expect from Muslims when they get their values from Islam which is anti democratic par excellence? Will someone like Omaya Joha, the famous Islamist cartoonist of Palestinian press and one of the winners of the election who proclaims, "If polygamy is good for Islam, it is good for me," be able to respect the rights of the minorities? If her religious zealotry makes her disregard her own equal rights, will she be able to respect the equal rights of the minorities and disregard her religion?
Imposing democracy in Islamic countries is therefore not an easy task. It's like trying to swim against the current. It’s only a matter of time that people fall back to despotism and tyranny again.
Bush may have all the good intentions in the world but he does not understand the idiosyncrasy of Muslims. His efforts of trying to impose democracy in Islamic countries are not going to work and in fact they will backfire causing more damage than good. You can’t build too high without a foundation. The foundation for democracy in Islamic countries simply does not exist. The America 's fiasco in Somali should have been enough to make them see that democracy can't be imposed on people who do not want it. The democracies in Afghanistan and in Iraq will fall, as soon as America pulls its troops out of these countries.
Yes, democracy is what the Islamic countries need most. But before democracy can take root, Islam must be weeded out.
If Iran is around in its current form in a year or so. They may well not be.
In that case, without Iran funding terrorism, insurrection, blood and death throughout the region, and no longer providing support to Syria, the face of the Middle East should be remarkably different.
The end, as dictated by the Islamo madmen, is now nearly upon us. All the Hamastics have to do is wait for Iran to deliver the bomb into their hands and Israel will be bombed and then Iran will cease to exist. The Arabs will then arise along with Pakistan, and other Islamo states with possible help from Russia and China. What will we do then? Let's call Jack Bauer. He will handle it.
It took nukes last time, it'll probably take several of them this time.
This is why Europe is the way it is. The muslim's who have claimed "political assylum" are only seeking political assylum because the secular dictorships in these countries do not want fundamentalist Islam. These people are free, yearning to be enslaved and enslave, the exact opposite of those in other countries (i.e. cuba, who are enslaved yearning to breath free). The sooner we take off our P.C. Blinders, the safer we will be.
Why is anyone surprised? Hitler was elected in a free, open, multiparty election. It was only after the Reichstag fire (think of the Capitol being torched, and a Muslim being arrested for arson) that he was granted "emergency powers."
Had the German people chosen to, they could have rebelled against Hitler, and restored democracy. They chose badly.
Democracy always implies the right to be wrong. It's the Left that wants to limit democracy when it goes against their idea of "what's best for us." "The Government is father, the government is mother" as they say.
Government should be coach and referee, not a parent or an all-powerful, all-benevolent, all-seeing God.
I completely agree. To me, this is the ultimate stupidity. It would be much simpler and faster to just put a bullet in our own heads.
Yes, WTF IS up with our leaders? The Neville Chamberlain virus run amok.
Gawd, what lack of basic logic!
And what about all the secular Muslims who came to America to get away from all that Jihadist, Islamofascist nonsense?
For example, my friend Ali, whose family walked out of Afghanistan when the Soviets invaded with only the clothes on their backs and a few liters of water. He agrees with me that the current leaders of Islam serve not Allah, but Shaithen. He and his wife and children are American first, Musilm second.
In case anyone has forgotten, there are Muslims serving our country in the US military:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/1246099/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/542512/posts
I get tired of saying this, but saying all Muslims are terrorists is no more true than saying all Christians are bible-thumping, clinic-bombing witch burners. It just ain't so.
And as I've said before, if we kill all the radical Muslims (out of necessity, not hatred) the ones that are left will be, by definition, more peaceful and secular.
Cute. . . but is that stereotype any less offensive or more accurate than Uncle Tom, Shylock, Geronimo, or Won Hung Lo?
With Iran, we are looking at the problem all wrong!!
That country can't exist without oil exports.
President Bush should give them an option.
Keep the nuclear...lose the oil.
Keep the oil and dismantle the nuclear.
If they resist, send in a swarm of cruise missles to destroy 20% of their oil facities on the first day.......
See what happens...
My bet is that it would not take a second day before the regime is overthrown.
While Islam is polticial at its very essence and inseparable from that, I would disagree that muslims consider it to be "the perfect way of life and governance."
If that were true, then Islam wouldn't need fear and terror to keep its "adherents" rooted in Islam. If it were truly perfect, then all the freedom in the world should be extended to people to choose or reject it as they see fit.
The same exact things can be said about communism/socialism. Yet, clearly that's far from perfect and incredibly further from imperfection than capitalism.
The founding fathers here also had some foresight. They knew that the republic that they had created for self governance, could, and would only be viable if those entrusted with it remained moral and good in the way of Judeo-Christian [read Biblical] standards with some basis or foundation for what "good" actually is.
Islam embraces, as good, some of the same things that Judeo-Christian values consider to be evil. That is why Islam is also perfectly incompatible with the American way of life. The first conflicts and tests of that will come when there are large enough poltiical constituencies around the country for them to attempt to install Muslim rule, whether it be only local or municipal, or more.
I'll give one "for instance;" How on earth can a non-muslim get a fair trial in a court whereby the judge is a practicing muslim and given Islam's religeous culture whereby that judge must give preference to a muslim litigant.
Women are also considered to be of lower status. That's gonna be a real wakeup call for the lib women's groups when some abused woman gets sentenced harshly, or perhaps to death, after being raped or the like. Who knows what these kooks will come up with given their bass-ackwards set of morals.
Then again, in a country where some have no problem with a child rapist walking with only a 60 day sentence, ...
Ask your liberal neighbor who voted for a socialist Democrat.
If we all don't become politically active, it's the same as accepting the status quo.
Most Americans don't hold a grudge, They hold big sticks, ready to flatten Moe the next time he shows his face/rear!
You stinking Palirats days are numbered, and it ain't many!
Jesus is coming and he is pissed!
It is a shame our government does not let the IDF loose to finish them off once and for all. I hope Hamas's win in the "elections" prompts the IDF to do level the west bank and gaza.
Democracy cannot exist in the presence of government-supplied welfare.
The Roman Republic discovered this two thousand years ago, as the rabble voted for the Emperor who would give them bread and circuses
Well said! It was socialism, not "barbarians" that doomed the Roman Empire.
Also note that it was the end of the Roman Republic, and it's replacement by a series of dictatorial emperors, that hastened the end.
http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch18.htm
The fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism ws chillingly similar. How often does history have to repeat itself before we wake up?
There's the solution to the problem. Cut the Palis off and starve them until they agree to a separate state with ruleof law, free enterprise, and no more incitement. Also, allow any who want to leave the territores to do so on condition they don't return.
Every word true. but despite Hamas' best attempts, is th "world" capable of seeing? Somehow, I think not.
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