The myth of the good Islamists: Democracy, autocracy and theocracy

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jun 1, 2014 at 11:12

Dr. Pipes you wrote

Illiberal democracy is better than illiberal autocracy but worse than liberal democracy.

Islam cannot deliver liberal democracy because without secularism there is no liberal democracy

Take the case of Turkey with its "moderate" Islamists where the Kurdish as well as the Syriac speakers are not allowed to teach their languages in schools and where standing in Takseem square and saying that 1.3M Armenians and 2M Greeks and 700,000 Syriac speakers were murdered early in the 20th century can end one in jail if not killed and that the Turks indeed invaded and destroyed the Byzantine empire can stop scholars from gaining access to the archives of Turkey and can you ever imagine the president of Turkey being a Kurd or an Armenian?

Oh and the recent conversion of Hagia Sophia to a mosque again is obscene

Yes the majority of Turks would agree and support all of the above this is still an illiberal democracy

And yes Turks vote which makes Turkey a democracy but it is an illiberal democracy at best and I would add it is an illiberal autocracy

What next? Theocracy may be? The only thing that would stop Turkey from being a theocracy is that the Turks love their Araq (the anise flavored liquor) but I would not hold my breath if Turkey becomes a theocracy not unlike Iran

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