Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id IAA05970 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 19 Jan 2002 08:56:41 GMT Message-ID: <3C492F29.8519BF54@clara.co.uk> Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 08:32:42 +0000 From: Douglas Brooker <dbrooker@clara.co.uk> Organization: University of London X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Islamism References: <200201190752.g0J7qdK21014@mail2.bigmailbox.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Joe Dees wrote:
>
> Here, Falwall & Robertson got publically censured for expressing such sentiments; in many Islamic countries, the terror flyers received joyous street demonstrations for acting upon them. And right now, the youth (who are in the majority there) have overwhelmingly supported Khatami's reforms, but they are stymied, sometimes violently, by Khameini's jihadic henchmen. This situation cannot perdure. Revolution is coming to Iran - again.
Khameini's jihadic henchment sound a bit like the police in LA, on one hand. But they also have a constitutional function defined by legislative text. Are Iran's supreme judicial insitutions any less politicized than the US Supreme Court?
State institutions function more or less according to the constitution in Iran. Elections are held, results are accepted without extensive litigation. The political struggles take place within the structure of the Constitution.
Maybe there will be will a revolution in Iran but there's nothing to indicate it will be an autochthonous event. More likely when and if Khatami's forces get the upper hand there will be constitutional reform. You could argue these would constitute a 'revolution' but that's a loose use of the term - sort of like saying the military action in Afghanistan is a 'war', when it's really just another military intervention.
Another Islamic democracy to consider is Bangladesh (125 million of the poorest people in the world - the live in a territory the size of Wisconsin, but by a recent UN survey the 'happiest' people in the world).
It's anyone's guess what will happen in Saudi Arabia after they kick out the US forces, which also seems to be in the wind. There is a fledgling democracy movement there, but for some reason it doesn't receive much support from the US.
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