Comments on: Dean Esmay Explores Freedom and Islam http://donklephant.com/2005/10/13/dean-esmay-explores-freedom-and-islam/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:05:09 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: michael reynolds http://donklephant.com/2005/10/13/dean-esmay-explores-freedom-and-islam/comment-page-1/#comment-2863 michael reynolds Sat, 15 Oct 2005 13:24:15 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2005/10/13/dean-esmay-explores-freedom-and-islam/#comment-2863 I've never thought Muslims were incapable of democracy, I supported the war because I hoped to see a free nation replace the tyranny of Iraq. That having been said, if you average the ten largest Muslim national populations you come up with about a 4.5 on the 7 point scale where 1 point would be Denmark and 7 points is North Korea. When you remove India (which is not Muslim dominated) from the equation, the number worsens. Indonesia, Turkey and Nigeria make up the balance of the more positive side of the statistics. If you look at middle eastern Muslim nations you get a very different picture. Or if you look at Arab Muslim nations. As Dean points out, no one is saying there isn't a problem. Obviously some Muslim-dominated nations have acheived a degree of freedom. But most have not, and none in the Arab world or the middle-east. Unfortunately, Iraq is in that neighborhood, not in southeast Asia or adjacent to Europe. Iraq is in the center of what amounts to a black hole of freedom. This raises concerns. It also raises the potential rewards if the Iraq project succeeds. I’ve never thought Muslims were incapable of democracy, I supported the war because I hoped to see a free nation replace the tyranny of Iraq. That having been said, if you average the ten largest Muslim national populations you come up with about a 4.5 on the 7 point scale where 1 point would be Denmark and 7 points is North Korea. When you remove India (which is not Muslim dominated) from the equation, the number worsens. Indonesia, Turkey and Nigeria make up the balance of the more positive side of the statistics.

If you look at middle eastern Muslim nations you get a very different picture. Or if you look at Arab Muslim nations. As Dean points out, no one is saying there isn’t a problem. Obviously some Muslim-dominated nations have acheived a degree of freedom. But most have not, and none in the Arab world or the middle-east. Unfortunately, Iraq is in that neighborhood, not in southeast Asia or adjacent to Europe. Iraq is in the center of what amounts to a black hole of freedom.

This raises concerns. It also raises the potential rewards if the Iraq project succeeds.

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