Democracy and Islam

The end of secular nationalism is close in the Arab/Muslim world. With the fall of the Baath party in Iraq and its imminent end in Syria as well as the end of Mubarak and others it can clearly be seen that secular nationalism hasn't worked very well and has required a huge amount of bloodshed to maintain. The people of the Arab world clearly want democracy, but we shouldn't confuse democracy with capitalism or western style secular governments. The people of the Arab world don't want democracy without Islam but many don't want an Iranian style theocracy with a joke democracy (the man with the power isn't elected by the people) where elected leaders are nothing more than the 'public face' of the regime. 

The best of people?

The recent tragic death of British aid worker Linda Norgrove in Afghanistan has really shown how unsustainable this conflict has become. How many more innocent lives must we lose before both sides realize that his war isn’t working. The Taliban’s insurgency is still surviving even after all of these years and now they are resorting to even crueler methods of violence in an attempt to prolong their survival.