Comment by nikkwong
2 years ago
"Democratic" is pushing it a tad too far—none of the Islamic world follows a rule of law that would be something akin to a democracy; they're monarchies, theocracies, or in many cases autocracies. The only actual democracy in the middle east is—well, Israel.
> The only actual democracy in the middle east is—well, Israel.
An apartheid is no democracy. Calling an apartheid regime 'democracy' debases the concept of democracy, and gives it bad reputation.
Iran had a democracy, until the CIA toppled it in 1953. In general having oil means foreign powers will keep installing useful puppets as leaders. The middle east having few democracies may have more to do with Western greed than with the preferences of Arabs or Muslims.
So you believe that Muslims and/or Arabs are incapable of democracy?
Also, Israel is absolutely not a democracy. Gazans were/are ultimately subject to Israeli law and could not vote in Israel's elections.
Incapable is a strong word—but much (if not most) of the Muslim world advocates for Sharia law which is essentially the opposite of a democracy. When it's practiced in it's truest form it's the most repressive system of laws against women in the modern world.
As the world becomes more modern and democratic principles become more highly prized, I think we see some glimmers of hope in the muslim world as parts of the population begin to value more democratic principles. But they have to do this in the context of the theocratic states in which they live in where these values were never first class citizens—so I think that's why we haven't seen much progress on these fronts in that part of the world.
I agree with you that there's a double standard in regards to the application of the law—I'm not privy on why Palestinians are subject to Israel's laws, and I wouldn't charitably say it's for reasons that are morally sound. I do think that allowing Palestinian's to vote in Israel's parliamentary elections is a non-starter for obvious reasons.
These racist Islamophobic talking points are so grimy to read.
The "modern and democratic" world leaders are currently trying - and failing - to whitewash an undeniable, livestreamed, openly boasted genocide and land-grab.
This is enabled by a variety of full-on unapologetic apocalyptic death-cult religious extremists and a complicit media who happily run fossil fuel greenwashing campaigns and silence anti-war voices.
Compare Muslims killed by Jews and Christians over the last few decades to the reverse. It's hard to argue for any moral high ground whatsoever when you look at the raw numbers.
If the best argument you have is that the West treats women better, maybe look at how many women we've murdered in the middle east, or the 26,000 rape-related pregnancies in Texas, or the Ethopian Jews sterilized without being informed in Israel, etc, etc, etc.
Those vastly wealthy ME leaders repressing women the hardest? They got all that money selling oil to us.
It's a lot of work unpeeling the layers and layers of Western hypocrisy and bullshit, but it has to be done. It has to. We can't keep killing millions of brown people for their natural resources and expect to have a nice society/planet to live on.