Islam in the New Iraq

Daniele Pipe's, The Search for Moderate Islam : A reply, countering Lawrence Auster's, The Search for Moderate Islam I : Does it Exist?

is as a good a place to start as any. Though not Islam discussed by Muslims, these sorts of discussions will be going on in all sorts of Muslim homes, including Iraqi one's, as the elections are over and the business of forming a government and writing a Constitution proceeds.

You are so conscious, from the spread of TV footage, that Iraq, and many countries in the Middle East, has a thriving, well-educated middle-class, who have, by the nature of things, broadened their view of the world - the more you read you broader your understanding - along with their increased social status. Questions about who controls their lives and how, in their new country, will be the hot topics over the next six months. This is part of the political process.

I am looking forward to seeing this debate. It will be more effectively carried out, if it can be done with lights on and streets safe and clean. The more money that is handed out to individual people (rather than western companies) the better. If they are struggling in their everyday lives, in a way that even the poor of western countries can't beginning to imagine, then they are not in the best position to take part in the political process. What a state to be in where a city like Fallujah is flattened and, months later, its inhabitants are in tents!




  ¶ Sunday, January 30, 2005