It’s a lesson I learned some years ago, I used to be a big believer in GWBush’s democracy dream for the greater Middle East, at least to a point, in some key Arab states, but no longer, I changed my mind over 6-7 years ago. The truth is, the more you learn about Islam, the more you understand the mentality that adheres to it, and the futility in trying to convince them otherwise.

Here’s a direct quote (Facebook) from an Egyptian Muslim Yahya Abu Hassân presently in Syria:

This is discussed thoroughly in books of Islamic politics from the first four-to-five centuries of Islam. It should be known that no leader is allowed to legislate anything new in Islam; however, there are times when a leader implements his unchallenged opinion. He might be right or wrong. If he is challenged, though, the matter must be returned back to the source texts. If he neglects doing so, he can be overthrown.

All political matters in a Muslim state must be validated by Islamic jurisprudence, if it fails to receive the Islamic seal of approval, it then can be in fact, overthrown. Western democracy, which centers its validity on pluralism, diverse thought, meaning more than one way of thinking, even entertaining direct opposing views, is an anathema to Islamic law and to the Muslim way of thinking.

Any thought, system that challenges Islamic thought, is automatically deemed null and void, as well as the fact that in Islam, the non-Muslim should never, ever, be allowed to be on the same equal footing with that of a Muslim, who is considered superior due to his belief system.

By Diana West on Friday, December 13, 2013 6:34 AM

Karzai and Rohani in Tehran, December 8, 2013
—
I am reposting a couple of columns below from 2009, written at a time before the Obama “surge” in Afghanistan, based on Bush’s “surge” in Iraq, was in full swing.

I have long argued that the Bush surge failed (explanation in three parts here). The Obama surge has failed, too, and for the same basic reason that has nothing to do with leaving Iraq “too soon,” or, I deeply hope, “leaving Afghanistan” in 2014. It is vital to stress that these failures are not due to the bravery and sacrifice and skill of our military forces. These forces have resolutely fulfilled their impossible missions, to say the very least. The failures lie in war-planning and political strategy, ignorance and fecklessness, at the highest levels of the Bush and Obama White Houses, in the Pentagon, and in the Congress that failed to check them.

Read More »