Freedom Requires Effort. Slavery Simply Asks One to Submit.

Submitted by trans-parere (Canada), Feb 5, 2012 at 00:22

I thought I was quite clear in stating that I thought democracies had the obligation to encourage the acceptance of individual rights and freedoms across all political boundaries. I would not council interfering with other peoples beliefs. Tribal or otherwise. In my opinion I can see no disconnect between the rights and freedoms of the individual and any peoples cultural or religious expression. Arab tribalism and Islam do not demand an authoritarian world view in of themselves anymore than did the Celtic and Germanic tribes and Christianity or the Hebrew tribes and Judaism. People learn to work together by necessity and advantage. There are common values expressed by every people through out the world and the Arab tribes are not indifferent to these values. In the Arab's defense.

What so many people ignore in the debate on Islam and Islamist. Is that each of the Islamic State's are simultaneously at war with the Islamist extremist and with in Islam. They must defend themselves from the terror of the al-Qaeda types while they are engaged in another war between either the Sunni sect or the Shia sect. The violent religious and tribal infighting that has taken place in Iraq during and after Saddam Hussein bears this out. None of this suggests that the Arab is indifferent to individual rights and freedoms. The Kurds are working hard to build a better life upon the advantages of a post Saddam Iraq. The so called "Arab Spring" suggests again that the people actually do want a share in democracy and the lifestyle that affords. It is not the barbarian at the gate one must be wary of. By then it's far to late. Rather beware the sloth and inattention that comes with thinking that what has been hard won, paid for in blood, is taught to our children as one more entitlement.

The society who teaches their children about the costs in lives, material and treasury of their democratic maturation need not ever worry about barbarians. The young and the old will fight among themselves for the privilege of having a place manning the wall. Those who do not teach their young the hard fought battles won in developing western democracy pave the way for the barbarian. Today Turkey is teetering on such an abyss. Ataturk or Islamist? Secular democracy or Islamic authoritarianism? Freeman or slave. In the process stands the fate of the social, political and religious freedoms of the individual Muslim Turk. The question that needs to be addressed is "what are the people being taught" ? What are they teaching their children in the schools and as a society? To what is Erdoğan, Davutoglu and company preparing their society. We, safe and sound and free need to ask those very same questions about our own society. Or we are not going to be safe, sound or free for long.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".