So how will you determine when Egyptians can rule themselves?

Submitted by Schills (United States), Jun 21, 2012 at 19:01

If Muslims in Muslim countries vote for sharia law to rule their society it is none of our business. As Mr. Pipes has pointed out there is the sharia law of the Muslim Brothers, the sharia law of the Iranian Ayatullahs, and the sharia law of the Taliban. They are not all the same thing.

Free will is not a western concept. It either exists independent of external factors like locality or it does not exist at all. This is not to say there are not dramatically different costs in exercising one's free will in different parts of the world. I am not really sure how you plan on determining when Muslims are "ready" to rule themselves. How precisely will they learn to exercise their free will, practice democracy etc. without actually getting out there and doing it?

Like I said, the election of a Muslim Brother may turn out horribly for Egypt, but the election of Islamists else where has not turned into rivers of blood.

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".