Good points

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Feb 11, 2011 at 19:38

Add to Egypt's mess the recent scapegoating of Copts, bombing of churches, and kidnapping of Christian girls for forcible conversion to Islam and marriage to their abductors. Add as well a tradition of a state-controlled media, one-party rule, presidents for life, paranoid conspiracy theorizing (the JOOOOZ pulled 9/11, for example; credence given to the _Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion), etc. These do not make a promising backdrop to functioning democracy

Also, I don't think that the question of divine sovereignty has to be opposed to democracy. The Calvinists adopted semi-democratic forms of ecclesiastical polity without giving up divine sovereignty, and contributed the famous "black legion" of [Presbyterian and Congregationalist] clergy to the American Revolution. I think it all depends on which God--the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit vs. Allah--is seen as sovereign.

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