The Infidel’s Guide To Islam (3 of 3) — Islamic Governance
According to Islamic law, freedom and democracy are punishable vices.
— Xenocrates
Sharia Law is notoriously brutal — especially to women.
As Islam exploded across North Africa and Southern Europe, engulfing the Byzantine Empire to the west and the Arabian peninsula to the east, it became entrenched in several sovereign states in these regions, retaining much of the primitive ideologies of the day, which includes systems of governance and law which have been notorious for their misogyny and brutality.
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A couple thoughts on the Arab Spring– Michael Ross, in the Sept/ Oct 2011 issue of Foreign Affairs points out that with the exception of Libya, all of the Arab autocracies which have toppled this year have been oil-poor. The oil-rich ones have succeeded (so far, at least) in buying off enough of their populations to stay in power.
Elsewhere, I have seen it suggested that while the West faces a demographic crunch due to birthrates that are below replacement levels, this problem is even worse in the Muslim world. Rural areas of the Middle East have not seen this, but in the modern, urbanized areas, birthrates have dropped from around 7 down to 1.5 in just a single generation. Islam, in the view of David Goldman (http://frontpagemag.com/2011/11/14/how-civilizations-die/), crashes and burns when it hits modernity.
I have seen a lot of worry by realist pundits in the Western press who think that the Arab Spring is going to lead to widespread Islamic militantism, such as we have never seen before. Will it? Might it be that the radical Islam we have see so far has been fueled to a great degree by these same autocrats who were just overthrown? A democratic government has less need to peddle some foreign bogeyman to keep the citizenry in line. Appeals to Islam worked in favor of people like Qaddafi because he could redirect hostility from home towards some outside target, and he could scare the West into helping him stay in power, both at the same time. With him and his type gone, how much jihadist sentiment is in Arab hearts really? Maybe not as much as we think.
On the other hand, maybe the realists are right, and the entire Middle East is about to become a great Muslim menace to the entire world. If so, better to get that out in the open now, while our side still has an overwhelming military advantage.
But I don’t think so. Where did the Arab Spring happen? In the cities. People in the hinterlands didn’t care. And where do we see traditional Islamic values evaporating faster than water on Tunisian asphalt in July? In the cities. The Arab Spring may be the beginning of the end for violent practioners of Islam.