diggerop wrote:

"HeyBub" wrote in message
m...
Scott Lurndal wrote:

I guess I'm a bit of a pessimist on the issue. The "factors" of
discontent in that middle east are driven by religious fanatics who
cannot face the fact that it is that religion that's keeping them in
the

Do you have any scholarly cites for this, or is this just your
opinion?

There's the empirical evidence. Of the 50-odd predominately Muslim
countries in the world, only two (Malaysia and Turkey) are democracies
(maybe Iraq). The rest are monarchies (Morocco), theocracies (Iran),
oligarchies (Egypt), thugocracies (Lybia), or out-and-out anarchies
(Sudan, Somalia).



Really? .......... How about:

Indonesia - the worlds largest muslim population (88% of 245 million) -
democracy


Marginally so. The Suartos were hardly champions of free and open
democracy. Even today, Indonesia is definitely neither tolerant nor
inclusive. Our church has a mission there. When living in Texas, we
called one of the Missionaries to be our pastor. After having one of our
board meetings with him one evening, he leaned back in his chair, smiled
and said, "you know, this is nice -- we just had a meeting here and
finished it and no one threw any bricks through the windows." Let me add
that our church body does not practice in-your-face evangelism. In
Indonesia, the default religion is the religion of peace and no open
evangelism is allowed. People who have been in car accidents there have
been declared guilty even when not really at fault because the judge has
determined, "if you weren't in our country, this accident wouldn't have
occurred".




Pakistan - the worlds second largest muslim population (97% of 165
million) - democracy

Your "empirical evidence" looks a little shaky to me.

Again, marginally democratic, most definitely not free to practice one's
faith unless it is as a member of the religion of peace. People in
Pakistan get killed when they aren't members of the religion of peace.

--

There is never a situation where having more rounds is a disadvantage

Rob Leatham