Afghan mess - questions to my USA friends

[Machine_Washable]

On 9/13/2021 at 7:49 PM, Didacus said:

Nice take amd thank you for the reply.

It would be naive to think that Iraqis or any other culture would simply see democracy as USA does, that is my own observation.

But then again i may be biased.  I NEVER voted, and I never believed in democracy.  I am in many ways an exception to the general rules of North America in a semse at least.

I agree with you. Democracy developed over a long period of time in the west and was a response to a particular set of problems in the west and was a western solution to those problems. Whether this solution was the best one available is for others to decide. 
 

Your statement that Iraqis will never see democracy as Americans do is a good way of putting it. Questions about whether the sharia is compatible with some aspects of representative democracy is an interesting intellectual question. But whatever the theoretical answer to that question may be the fact is that western democracy is deeply entwined with one culture (the modern west) and another culture (the Muslim world or another culture like China) is never going to see democracy in the same light. 
 

I don’t think there is any particular good in democracy. Nor do I think it is totally forbidden. It really depends on who rules. If they’re good and just and they get consultation through voting on some issues then that is fine. If they don’t use that tool then it’s also fine with me. There are things that the west has done well. The system of intellectual freedom is something that the Muslim world used to be very strong in. But as that declined so did the vibrancy of a lot of Muslim thought. But that is another issue. 
 

I realized that I should have been clearer about something in my previous answer. I am Sunni Muslim. Iraq is majority Shia. I don’t know a lot about Shia thought. The split between Sunni and Shia started as a political split and became wider and wider over time. In fact the split occurred partly over a disagreement about how to deal with an unjust and sinful ruler. So I don’t know how Shia view the issue. Cleary there is some basis for merging the sharia with voting since that is what Iran claims to do. But I don’t know if this is an anomaly in Shia thought or mainstream. 

[Winchester]

On 9/14/2021 at 1:01 AM, BarbaraTherese said:

............and a viable alternative could be?..............

What's the viable alternative to murder?

Edited September 19, 2021 by Winchester