Quote Originally Posted by ogpro View Post
Hehe...good Niky. I'm going to respond to this msg so I don't end up quoting your whole reply...

I agree with basically most of your points, except the part where you mistook my bringing up the Edsa Revolution as an example of where we need american intervention. I brought that up because I believe that a part of what swelled public support was HOPE...

I too have heard about the silent majority of moderate muslims who are supposedly shocked at the actions of their hardline comrades. The problem is, the fundamentalists are running the show. They have the same "you are with us or against us" philosophy that ironically, Bush embraces. When you have the fundamentalists in power, how do the moderates express themselves?
Sorry about that... my brain went into steamroller mode as I analyzed the letter... (I mean: Muslim holidays bad? What the heck?)

True... one of America's greatest contributions to the world and in the advancement of democracy in the past century is the offer of hope. Hope of a better, more prosperous life through democracy and capitalism. Sad, during EDSA, that we had democracy before that, and we actually had to fight for it again.

As for how moderates are to express themselves, in a democracy, it's through the vote... although I have issues with the way the vote polarizes people in the US into the "with-us-against-us" camps. Hard for one side, too, when there are different choice espousing the same ideals (as happened in Bush's first election) they end up cannibalizing votes from one another... but when enough of the electorate knows what they want, the vote can go to the silent majority. A fact that I see as hampering America's ability to gain any true headway in Iraq, as politics is interfering with the war effort when America really needs to commit to it.

But amongst Muslims? Sad to say, the extremists will always get more media attention. Moderate Muslims, leading productive lives, forming a constructive part of their society, will never be the top of the news. The news loves controversy, scandal and strife. It's the noisiest at both ends (right and left) that get the most media, not the more sensible voices.

Islam is not a democracy, it's a religion. The moderates can't vote to shut up the extremists. It's just like Catholicism... we can't put the idea of women priests to a vote... we can't choose our Popes, it's done for us. (Sadly, Ratzinger appears much less open to change and reform than John Paul II, who helped to make the Church more relevant to the modern world)

It's nice to see, though, that there's more and more opening up of the Muslim world to the media, and more "human interest" stories about Muslim culture, and the way it is starting to embrace western ideas. Whether it can adapt fast enough, or if things will go to pot within the next few decades, well, that's a gamble.

But it's more of the Chinese dilemma... you can't attack this thing head on. You can just try all channels, diplomacy, show-of-force, cultural assimilation and dissemination and a free trade of ideas and goods, and wait for them to adapt to your world. Because the world isn't going to go the way of Islam... Islam has to adapt to the modern world. It might take the Muslim equivalent of Pope John Paul II or the Vatican II treatise, but it has to happen eventually.