Rich wrote: > Quite how we can convince people in the regions where the failure > of the Islamic states is most total that the things they ought to > be emulating from the glorious past of Islamic are openness to > trade, toleration, meritocracy, egality, respect and encouragement > for science and scholarship and so forth, I just don't know. I > think the admission of Turkey - former heartland of Islam's last > great empire - into the European Union will be an important step. > Engaging with the educated, partially Westernised elites of Iran > might be another. But the near total failure of the heartlands of > Islam to provide anything like a viable model for the organisation > of modern industrial societies is an immense and complex problem to > solve, and certainly not amenable to the sorts of quick and easy > fixes that the more primitivist branches of Islam are desperate to > try.
Excellent anaysis, Rich, thanks for that. Let's hope Dan is wrong about Turkey. Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
