TaiShang
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Two from Malaysia. One is an Ustaz, another is a university lecturer. They say poverty is the source of extremism, i disagree.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/05/25/two-malaysians-killed-in-marawi-city-battle/
Poverty is an excuse for Islamists. The problem is in the ideology, not in the material conditions. Perhaps the inconvenient truth is that organized religion is essentially bad, although it may in rare cases be used for good.
Organized religions must be subdued as they tend to become political and challenge secular state authority. Especially if a religion is more about public life than private life, that's an cancerous ideology that spreads faster than wildfire -- as seen in Syria and now being seen in the Philippines.
That's why this statement is very true:
If there was any criticism of Assad – especially early on in 2011-2012, but especially in the beginning of the crisis in Syria – the criticism from Syrians would have been: “He wasn’t heavy-handed enough.”
If president Duterte is going to commit a mistake, it is if he goes soft-handed by giving ear to the terror-sponsoring regimes such as the US and institutions such as the HRW and AI.
Duterte needs to mobilize the region, especially the ASEAN, the ASEAN+3 and the ARF. The SCO anti-terror task force might get involved, as well. They have been doing annual drills, it is perhaps time to show what they have learned so far.
This is a test case if we have a region in East Asia or not.
China needs to help the Philippines, but watch out that this won't become China's Philippines such as America's Vietnam or the Soviet's Afghanistan. The US deep state might set this as a trap for the Chinese to fall into.
Exactly. For this region, China needs to mobilize and act in tandem with the region, not singularly.