Just my opinion - Syria, Islam and the West Readers 40 years of age or younger will, during the course of their lifetime, have to deal with a world where 1 in 3 people are Muslim (now it is 1 in 5). In 40 years there will be 10 Billion people on the planet, 3 1/2 Billion Muslims.This is generally bad news for non-Muslims, particularly in light of the radical elements within that religion who hold the view that all non-Muslims are infidels and should be either converted, killed or enslaved.
Keep in mind that Islam is not the only religion to espouse the idea that they are the 'true' religion and that non-believers will never reach heaven. What other religions hold this view? Try the Catholic Church and the Jewish faith. So Islam isn't alone, at least in that respect.
What then should we 'do' about Islam?
In the short term I suggest we not further involve ourselves in Islamic countries. We have not done a very good job so far, why would we believe that we will do better with further meddling?
I note that there are humanitarians who are agitating for the US to get involved in Syria and help to depose the current regime. True 70,000+ have been killed so far. So from a humanitarian perspective it would seem that some action should be taken.
Examine this a bit further. An entirely hostile country, one that was a sworn enemy of Israel and had no relations with the US, is now in the process of reducing itself to rubble. Where is the downside to this? The country is self destructing and will not in coming years be capable of posing a threat to Israel, Lebanon or us. We should simply stay out of it, there is no upside to any meddling, both sides will turn on us, any weapons we provide will probably end up used against the West by the radical Islamic elements who have poured into Syria.
Put bluntly, while they are killing each other they are not killing us. A harsh statement but how is it wrong?
Possibly the only things that we (the West) have going for us in the coming 40 years is that Islam is not one great monolith. It is fractured and may well come apart without any necessity for conflict with the West.
Consider that:
1) The Persians and Arabs have been great rivals for well over a thousand years, they 1) just don't like each other,
2) There is a deep divide in Islam between the radicals and the moderates, the radicals for the moment are in the ascendency but are far outnumbered by the moderate Muslims who see little being gained by their barbaric brethren,
3) Since the founding of their religion the Shia and Suni branches of Islam have been at war with each other, this isn't going to change, each side views the other as being blasphemers and apostates of their religion.
The short term recommendation is to stay out of social engineering in Islamic countries, there is no 'good side' to be found.
Long term we may find Islam so divided and fractured that they pose no threat to Western interests.
Q) What should be of concern to us?
A) China
You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!
Join 12160 Social Network