Rishi Sunak: Many lessons to learn.

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Oct 25, 2022 at 16:43

Dear Dr Pipes,

Rishi Sunak's selection/election as the British PM has been called both a success and death of democracy. While a lot of British media praised the events related to his election, at least one Scottish newspaper called it the death of democracy.

This situation for the UK is not very different from the situation that the USA faced when we elected Barak Hussein Obama as the president for the USA. Both Obama and Sunak are people of color but either led or are leading prominent Western democracies. They both have their roots in Africa and in non-Christian religions.

Whether we like (or dislike) a Hindu Sunak as the PM or a potentially Muslim Obama as a president of the USA, we must admit that our modern democracies will give rise to this kind of anomalies with increasing frequency. Democracies --for their own good-- do not allow direct voting for the leader by the electorate. There is an indirection involved. In the USA this indirection happens when the two major parties elect their candidates using the primaries and, also, through the electoral college. In parliamentary democracies --as we just saw in the UK-- people vote for a party and never directly for the leader. And US and the UK are not the only examples. In 2004, India came very close to electing Sonia Gandhi (a Christian) the Prime Minister of India.

Democracies do not and should not bar a minority community member from becoming the main leader. It is very likely that a Muslim will become the head of state of USA, France, India, Israel, or another democracy. Sunak's ascendency to the British leadership will give new hopes to the likes of Sadiq Khan and Sahid Javid.

I see two major lessons here for all citizens of democracies:

1. People should not necessarily depend on their governments to protect their interests. While patriotism and loyalty to one's country and government is very important, people must be ready to be in a situation where the leader of their nation will not defend the interest of a majority of them. It is highly unlikely that Rishi Sunak will spend a sleepless night defending the interests of the Anglican Church. Likewise, we can ask the question how Sunak would have acted if he, instead of Winston Churchill, were the British PM during the 2nd WW? So, citizens of the democracies may find that they --not their governments-- are ultimately responsible for defending their interests. Separation of Chruch and State can be so wide that the Church may find itself unprotected.

2. The second lesson is about unsuitability of Islam for the modern world: a believer of Islam as the head of state of a democracy will be a dangerous proposition when Islam is perpetually interested in creating
Muslim-only enclaves all over the world. As I said above, it is just a matter of time before our democracies allow a Muslim to become one of our heads of states. It should be noted that Islamic nations with over-whelming majority of Muslims, do not have to face the inconvenience of being led by a non-Muslim. Before that happens, we need to dilute the Muslim love for Sharia, Islam, Muhammad, Quran, and Islamic expansionism. Educating Muslims will be difficult, but we need to spare no effort toward doing that.

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