Thursday, April 26, 2007

Response to "Peace in the Middle East?"

This is a response to Margaret's Post.

Margaret proposes in her blog that "
Democracy is the government of choice because it does not allow for one man to run unchecked and uncontrolled by the people he governs" and that combining Islam with democracy will lead to peace. She is responding to the Sam Harris article and his view that Islam and peace can never co-exist.

I think that changing the governmental system in the Middle East will not necessarily affect this specific issue. Harris's argument is that it is fundamentally a problem with Islam, not with the government of Islamic states. I definitly agree that a change ito the political nightmare in the Middle East, is necessarily a change for the better, but I think it is unrelated to Harris's point.

The only way I see this idea changing the situation in Harris's eyes would be a fundamental change to Islam. Perhaps if Islam had more democratic foundations Harris would not think the way he does.


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