Kinds of wars in the current state of the world

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Sep 19, 2013 at 17:50

Dear Dr Pipes: Your reader Robin Rosenblatt's description of Islamic culture as a culture of war reminded me of a strange coincidence (Is it a coincidence?). Ever since the end of cold war, violent wars among nations are declining in intensity and frequency with the exception of the following three kinds of wars: 1. Civil wars inside countries that are 90+% muslim by population 2. International wars between 90+% muslim countries and their non-muslim adversaries and 3. Wars of independence between liberal democracies where muslims form a sufficiently big minority. The example of 1 is the war in Syria. The example of 2 is the conflict between Pakistan and India. and an example of 3 is wars of independence or islamization in Nigeria, Philippines and India Kashmir. As I write this message I do not see many other wars going on in the world. I also think that no other war in the world has the same global proportion as the Islamic wars. In the light of this observation Rosenblatt's observation is quite on the dot.

Our world can be politically viewed as two groups of countries. The first group is the free or liberal group where there is a separation of church and state and governments and populations take a more relaxed view on religion and God. The second group is the Islamic group where there is no separation of church and state and governments and people think that Islamic theocracies define the way countries should live. What will define the 21st century for humanity is how much of the world's land is controlled by the one group or the other. Political actions and opinions in this century should be guided by how any piece of land can be saved from going under a theocratic control and how genuine democracies can be brought to the land that is currently under Islamic control.

I contend that liberal/democratic states of the world should economically intervene in the Islamic states if it advances the cause of democracy. WIth enough international support among free nations, they should also intervene with war if the war would advance the cause of democracy and peace.

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