<< With all due respect, this is not the question to ask. >
??? What do you mean? That there are two sets of questions, one of them that we may ask, and another one that we may not ask? Who decided which question is in one set and which question is in the other set? And, if a question is in the censured set, how can we know what somone else thinks about that subject? Or have I just made four more forbidden questions? >> Of course not, you can ask anything you want. What I was trying to say, as politely as possible, is I think what you asked is a bogus question, sort of the fallacy of the false dichotomy. What I meant was, the question is not, "Is Islam incompatible with democracy?" since it demonstrably is not. The more pertinent question, IMO, is, "Why are so many Islamic countries undemocratic?" Which then bleeds into the question, "Why are so many countries PERIOD undemocratic, and are there any common factors explaining this?" I think the leaders of a lot of countries are (rightfully) scared to make themselves accountable to their people and therefore concoct all sorts of reasons why democracy is either wrong in general or unsuited for their country in particular. Over a long enough period, people's democractic muscles, as it were, atrophy, and having little or no experience of democracy cease to value it. There's authoritarian Islam. There's authoritarian Christianity and even authoritarian Judaism (which usually, though, seeks to control only other Jews, not members of other religions). Some Muslims wish to control everyone else, but not all do. The interesting and vital question is, why do some feel one way and others feel another. Tom Beck
