End of capitalism? Where?

Submitted by George P (India), Jul 26, 2009 at 23:49

Dear Dr Pipes:

I have also noticed many Muslims celebrating the current financial turmoils in the US as sign of demise of capitalism and of democratic values. These people are rejoicing because they think that this turmoil gives them a chance to promote Islamic thought as an alternative.

But these people are dead wrong. Capitalism and democracy are alive and well and thriving. India, China, Brazil, and many other countries that were following socialism and communism thirty years ago are moving toward democracy and economic freedom. Islamic prosperity --in small pockets where it exists-- is due to oil wealth which is primarily a geographic accident (muslims did not even invent the drills that they use to suck the oil out of the earth!).

On the other hand, a major cause of the current economic problems in the USA and western europe is the rise of India and China as new economic (capitalistic) powers. US economic problems are for-the-most-part the result of normal competition between free societies, they do not prove the correctness or supremacy of Islamic thought. Islamic thought is part of the problem and not part of the solution.

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