Balkanize Islamia - Bruce Walker
"It seems unlikely that the sort of pluralistic, free, tolerant democracy that we in the civilized West have wanted can exist in Islamia. It was not an unrealistic expectation that it could. Japan has long been a functioning democracy, and both South Korea and Taiwan have been as well. India is the largest democracy in the world. Although Latin American states have had their share of juntas and strong men, Latin America also has a strong tradition of democracy in nations like Costa Rico and free elections have been the norm, not the exception, for decades now south of the Rio Grande.
On the other hand, those lands that have a strong Moslem majority seem always to descend into something other than free tolerant democracies. Lebanon was long the flower of the Middle East, but whether after the long exodus of Lebanese Christians it can flower again appears very unlikely. Iran was friendly, relatively free and peaceful, but that was not under democracy but rather under the pro-American Shah. Turkey has been the single flicker of hope, but Turkey is really ruled by the army and overtly Muslim parties are inching toward control of the once very secular Turkish nation. "
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