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Being a freedom and justice loving classical liberal, it pains me every time I read details of the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs. What I fear thoug
by ummonk 8y ago
Being a freedom and justice loving classical liberal, it pains me every time I read details of the Chinese government’s treatment of Uyghurs.
What I fear though is that any treatment that I would approve of would be ineffective in preventing radicalization. Is there any example of ethical and tolerant treatment that manages to prevent the spread of Salafi radicalism once it has taken root? In adjacent Pakistan we are seeing millions of people throwing a fit because a Christian woman accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death was finally ruled innocent and released after 10 years in prison. How can China avoid ending up like this and avoid having to deal with its own version of the Taliban? Is there any country that has pulled it off without resorting to brutal totalitarianism?
- bzbarsky 8y agoIndonesia seems to be doing OK. Though arguably Suharto did some of the "brutal totalitarianism" bit.... That said, that's over 20 years in the past, and I'm not sure radicalism has really been spreading that much in Indonesia. It exists, of course; it's just not clear to me that it's getting stronger. Until the last few years, I would have said Turkey was doing OK, even with the various military coups it's had; whether those count as "brutal" is an interesting question. The last few years, Turkey has definitely turned in a totalitarian direction, though I don't think combating radical islam was the cause. I _think_ Bangladesh has done more or less ok. But I don't know much about it, to be honest. Malaysia I think has done ok. So has Morocco. Again, none of these completely lack radical Islamists. But that would be a pretty high bar to clear (e.g. the US probably doesn't clear it, and definitely doesn't clear it if you replace "Islamists" with "Christians", but keep the radicalness).