Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people.
In his short post on the inaugural address, Glenn Reynolds picks up on George W. Bush plugging the Koran.
What's the Koran doing in there? It's bad enough that every inauguration speech has to be plugged full of talk about God, why do we now have to plug a religion that that wants to convert us via a holy war?
Either Bush or his speechwriter was hoping that Muslims listening to the speech would think, "America is a great place because Bush reads the Koran. Let's all support American foreign policy."
I don't see how the words of the Koran have anything to do with "self-government." The more devoutly Islamic the nation, the less self-government it seems to have. Only Turkey has democracy, and they practice a secular form of Islam there. And I don't trust the Islamist AKP party that's now in power there.
1 comment:
One of the things to remember about Turkey is the first duty of their Military is to maintain the secular nature of the state. Another thing, don't forget that some of the most repressive Muslim nations are actually secular states. Syria, the former Iraq, and Indonesia come to mind immediately followed closely by Egypt, and Sudan.
Post a Comment