Hannity had on his radio show today MEP Daniel Hannan to talk about Egypt and the Middle East. This interview runs 23 minutes but it is great for discussion. There are basically two sides to this discussion: supporting democracy in the Middle East or supporting dictators like Mubarak. Hannity looks at Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood in mind, knowing that they are the worst of the two choices between them and Mubarak. So he would come down on the side of supporting Mubarak in this case. Hannan sees it a bit differently, suggeting that if we allow for democracy to grow there or in other places in the Middle East, that it will solve the problem of radicalism. He argues that radical groups like the M.B. don’t fare well in a place where there is true democracy, but that they are much more successful in authoritarian countries. While this may be true to some extent, I have some problems with this argument. I’m no expert on Turkey, but I believe they’ve gone from a parliamentary republic to an Islamic state without drawing much attention to themselves. That would seem to be a contradiction to his argument.
Hannan seems to be approaching the Middle East from a very secular viewpoint. I say this because he believes that democracy, taken root, will solve the problem of ‘radicalism’. I don’t. Islamic radicalism, to be specific, is part of a religious ideology that is antithetical to a Jeffersonian style democracy. Part of the reason we know this is because Islam isn’t just a religion, but it’s a whole system of government (Sharia) that includes a religion. We’ve all seen and heard how oppressive Sharia is and as long as people adhere to these beliefs, they will be radical because their statist religion is radical.
You know what will solve the problem of Islamic radicalism? Christianity. If those in Islamic countries were to abandon it and convert to Christianity, which has a completely different set of principles at its foundation, you would see terror and radicalism fall by the wayside. It’s true. Yes I know it’s a pipe dream. But I am trying to illustrate my point.
Before you start ripping into Hannan or Hannity for that matter, listen to the interview to fully understand their arguments. Hannan does a great job explaining his point of view even though I do find it to be idealistic.
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