Islam will have to face the real world

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Apr 24, 2011 at 01:35

Dear Dr Pipes:

Your reader Sara correctly pointed out that the middle-eastern nations follow a different culture. But I do not agree with her assertion that this culture will always be different. I believe that in the modern world which is dominated by electronic media, fundamentalist Islam will collapse faster than how fast communism collapsed. Iranian revolution is the case in point. What is going on in most of the middle-east today happened in Iran three to four decades ago. In Iran, a west-loving dictator was replaced by an Islamic regime.

What recently happened in Tunisia and Egypt is no different from what happened in Iran three decades ago. And if presidents Bush could be patient for just few more years, the same would have happened in Iraq. And same will happen in every country that follows repressive cultures. People's desire to think and act freely is stronger than any other desire known to man kind. This desire fueled by communication and media will lead to collapse of all these dictatorships. And, one more thing will happen. The Islamic revolution in Iran has failed. Even with Iranian oil-wealth, the Islamic regime in Iran has not been able to make its citizens happy. The protests that took place and were quashed during the last Iranian election, will become more frequent. Iranian suppressive regime could last for three to four decade because mass person-to-person communication did not did not exist then. It exists now. Even if fundamentalists take control in the middle eastern countries where old regimes are being forced out, they will fail faster than ever before. That will happen because in the modern world, looting other countries, colonizing foreign lands, and stealing from other nations is not available so easity as a quick path to prosperity. And, hard work, freedom, and entrepreneurship are the only path left to prosperity (or survival). Regimes that block this path will find it difficult to survive.

We can accelerate this process by highlighting the hypocrisy of Islamic nations as often as possible. Many things that we take for granted now --such as that it is ok for Saudi Arabia to be 99% Islamic while Britain is obligated to be multi-cultural-- will need to be questioned. And they will need to be questioned every moment of every day.

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