Starting from the Soviet military campaign on Afghanistan there is a surge in radical and militant Islamic ideologies and groups. After more than a decade long battle between the Western powers and radical Islamist groups there is no sign of weakening on the latter side.
On contrary, invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and, Western backed Arab Spring seems to create an environment that is much more desired by radical groups in the Middle East. In 1980's they were bunch of bandits that no one took serious. Today they control 60% of Syria, around 20% of US Invaded Iraq. They are active in Afghanistan and are still controlling certain cities. They are also destabilizing Pakistan. Groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria are controlling around 10% of the country and destabilizing the neighbouring countries. They have a wide network of terror cells in Europe and US. They can find human resource from anywhere around the globe by radicalizing Muslims.
They are printing their own money. They are organized like a state. They make trade with neighbouring countries by means of smuggling. They are an organization that can continue armed insurgency in two different continents (Asia and Africa) and can make terror attacks on 3 different continents (Europe, North America and Australia). I think this is an unprecedented type of rogue power that the World has ever seen in the history of mankind.
Now the prognosis is bad as it can be seen. But what about the cure. As I've mentioned before Western powers are fighting with radical Islam for more than a decade now. They had limited success, if any. Some scholars even speculate that they've made it worse by destabilizing the established governments both by invasion in Iraq case or by arming Jihadist groups in Democratic Republic of Afghanistan case, or by sponsoring and legitimizing the adventerous revoluationary forces in the case of Arab Spring with the hope that the revolutionary forces will embrace Western Democracy.
I think it's clear that Turkey is one of the most advanced form of contemporary civilization that a Muslim majority country produced so far. Also it's clear that, this level of civilization was impossible to achieve if Turkey was not a constitutionally secular country. Of course remaining secular for Turkey was not easy. Turkish state and bureaucracy was very assertive against Islamist movement. Political Islam was banned and was a huge taboo in Turkish political life. Many politicians and journalists underwent trials for spreading political Islam. Some were even sentenced and served time in jail. All of those actions against political Islam were repeatedly condemned by European Union in the name of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. You and I both know the story when Turkish state became more "democratic" and stopped being assertive against political Islam. Today Turkey is struggling a lot for trying to keep it's secular foundations. Some scholars even speculate that secularism in Turkey is somewhat too damaged to be restored again.
There is not even one successful example of liberal democracy in a Muslim majority country. After liberalization of poltical Islam with the Western values like Freedom of Speech, sooner or later Islamic parties comes to power. Iran, Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan are good examples. Turkish Islamist movement is still somewhat more moderate because of the unique composition of cultural difference and 90 years of secular past. However AKP is still a political Islamist party that should not be governing in a functioning secular democracy.
As one can easily see secularism and democracy goes hand in hand. If a country can maintain certain levels of secularism that country can become more stable and democratic. However we've repeatedly experienced that with the Western school of thought Muslim majority countries wouldn't be able to become secular or democratic. However most important secularist and reformist movements in Muslim majority countries were nurtured by leftist ideologies and authoritarian governments. Good examples are single party CHP rule in Turkey, Baathist rule in Iraq and Syria, Soviet backed Socialist rule in Afghanistan, Reza Pahlavi rule in Iran, Mobarak rule in Egypt, Gaddafi rule in Libya. Of course there were so many atrocities in those eras. However I urged you to see the atrocities of ISIS. Compared to that those governments are very legitimate and modern.
That's why I think Western political philosophers should give legitimacy to certain types of authoritarian government reflexes. We all know that authoritarianism failed heavily in Europe. However in Muslim majority countries authoritarianism opened the way for huge reforms that wouldn't have been done in any other way. In China authoritarianism also made a huge success in terms of unifying the entire population and forming an economic system that lifted hundereds of millions of people above poverty line. Authoriterian, progressive, secular and rational type of governments can be a key to saving Muslim majority countries. Turkish government in pre-AKP period was also a good model in which there were elections but the state, judicial system and bureaucracy was very assertive against political Islamist movements.
So what you guys think about that?
On contrary, invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and, Western backed Arab Spring seems to create an environment that is much more desired by radical groups in the Middle East. In 1980's they were bunch of bandits that no one took serious. Today they control 60% of Syria, around 20% of US Invaded Iraq. They are active in Afghanistan and are still controlling certain cities. They are also destabilizing Pakistan. Groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria are controlling around 10% of the country and destabilizing the neighbouring countries. They have a wide network of terror cells in Europe and US. They can find human resource from anywhere around the globe by radicalizing Muslims.
They are printing their own money. They are organized like a state. They make trade with neighbouring countries by means of smuggling. They are an organization that can continue armed insurgency in two different continents (Asia and Africa) and can make terror attacks on 3 different continents (Europe, North America and Australia). I think this is an unprecedented type of rogue power that the World has ever seen in the history of mankind.
Now the prognosis is bad as it can be seen. But what about the cure. As I've mentioned before Western powers are fighting with radical Islam for more than a decade now. They had limited success, if any. Some scholars even speculate that they've made it worse by destabilizing the established governments both by invasion in Iraq case or by arming Jihadist groups in Democratic Republic of Afghanistan case, or by sponsoring and legitimizing the adventerous revoluationary forces in the case of Arab Spring with the hope that the revolutionary forces will embrace Western Democracy.
I think it's clear that Turkey is one of the most advanced form of contemporary civilization that a Muslim majority country produced so far. Also it's clear that, this level of civilization was impossible to achieve if Turkey was not a constitutionally secular country. Of course remaining secular for Turkey was not easy. Turkish state and bureaucracy was very assertive against Islamist movement. Political Islam was banned and was a huge taboo in Turkish political life. Many politicians and journalists underwent trials for spreading political Islam. Some were even sentenced and served time in jail. All of those actions against political Islam were repeatedly condemned by European Union in the name of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. You and I both know the story when Turkish state became more "democratic" and stopped being assertive against political Islam. Today Turkey is struggling a lot for trying to keep it's secular foundations. Some scholars even speculate that secularism in Turkey is somewhat too damaged to be restored again.
There is not even one successful example of liberal democracy in a Muslim majority country. After liberalization of poltical Islam with the Western values like Freedom of Speech, sooner or later Islamic parties comes to power. Iran, Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan are good examples. Turkish Islamist movement is still somewhat more moderate because of the unique composition of cultural difference and 90 years of secular past. However AKP is still a political Islamist party that should not be governing in a functioning secular democracy.
As one can easily see secularism and democracy goes hand in hand. If a country can maintain certain levels of secularism that country can become more stable and democratic. However we've repeatedly experienced that with the Western school of thought Muslim majority countries wouldn't be able to become secular or democratic. However most important secularist and reformist movements in Muslim majority countries were nurtured by leftist ideologies and authoritarian governments. Good examples are single party CHP rule in Turkey, Baathist rule in Iraq and Syria, Soviet backed Socialist rule in Afghanistan, Reza Pahlavi rule in Iran, Mobarak rule in Egypt, Gaddafi rule in Libya. Of course there were so many atrocities in those eras. However I urged you to see the atrocities of ISIS. Compared to that those governments are very legitimate and modern.
That's why I think Western political philosophers should give legitimacy to certain types of authoritarian government reflexes. We all know that authoritarianism failed heavily in Europe. However in Muslim majority countries authoritarianism opened the way for huge reforms that wouldn't have been done in any other way. In China authoritarianism also made a huge success in terms of unifying the entire population and forming an economic system that lifted hundereds of millions of people above poverty line. Authoriterian, progressive, secular and rational type of governments can be a key to saving Muslim majority countries. Turkish government in pre-AKP period was also a good model in which there were elections but the state, judicial system and bureaucracy was very assertive against political Islamist movements.
So what you guys think about that?
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