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Saudi Arabia: political islam in power => MBS somehow Tudoring it away at an unexpected pace Turkey: Erdogan is effectively a muslim brother => On the decline,

Saudi Arabia: political islam in power => MBS somehow Tudoring it away at an unexpected pace Turkey: Erdogan is effectively a muslim brother => On the decline, projected to be ousted next year The Gulf states don't really have political parties as far as I understand. They are absolute monarchies. > the steady rise of islamism across the muslim world is real It waxes and wanes. May have peaked several places. Syria, Egypt and Iraq used to be quesi-socialist dictatorships for example. Here is some black and white footage of Nasser from 1958 laughing at the ridiculousness of somebody from the Muslim Brotherhood complaining about hijabs not being enforced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZIqdrFeFBk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZIqdrFeFBk Iran was a very different place before the revolution. Turkey was originally pivoting towards secularism with Ataturk. Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Jordan were/are primarily monarchies engaged in a game of thrones type battle royale etc. > common goal of imposing the Sharia as the rule of law Well, only kinda sorta. There's also the regional competition for supremacy between Shia and Sunni to consider. And all of this is overlaid untop of feudal tribal society dynamics. > But its influence seems to have been completely ignored by the cookie cutter response that any problem of the world should be attributed to the West, one way or another. Not only has it been ignored out of political correctness. In many cases the West for some reason likes to empower religious nutjobs whom they somehow find more palatable in the moment than whatever strongman is barely holding the place together - reliably causing untold amounts of misery, death, and destruction as some semblance of order is replaced with chaos for no coherent reason and with no plan for what comes next. But yeah Islamism is one of several impossible problems that region is facing.

cm2187 5y ago
Well, my point isn't so much about who is in charge than the fact that there is a broad popular support for islamism in the muslim world, and that doesn't necessarily mean an absolute majority everywhere. Clearly the sharia is in force in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, and seemingly with a strong popular support. And I agree that it will wane over time, or at least I hope it will, like communism. And I think, like communism, the most anti-islamist countries will be the countries that had to live under Islamism (I am looking at Iran with interest). But that may take decades. Regarding Shia vs Sunni, that's right but I don't think it negates my point. There were many rivalries between Stalinism vs Maoism vs Trotksism, etc, but it is still right to refer to them as communist ideologies with a common goal.
- recuter 5y ago
  > Clearly the sharia is in force in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, and seemingly with a strong popular support. I think you might be very interested in this article: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/04/mohammed-bin-salman-saudi-arabia-palace-interview/622822/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/04/mohamme... Take it with a giant grain of salt of course as it is an attempted puff piece. The Gulf states are not sharia. They want to be Vegas. > And I agree that it will wane over time And wax. All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again. > Regarding Shia vs Sunni, that's right but I don't think it negates my point. There were many rivalries between Stalinism vs Maoism vs Trotksism, etc, but it is still right to refer them as communist ideologies with a common goal. I don't think that is super accurate. One of them generally wants to be a state religion the other wants to take over the region and afterwards the world.

cm2187 5y ago

Well, my point isn't so much about who is in charge than the fact that there is a broad popular support for islamism in the muslim world, and that doesn't necessarily mean an absolute majority everywhere. Clearly the sharia is in force in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, and seemingly with a strong popular support. And I agree that it will wane over time, or at least I hope it will, like communism. And I think, like communism, the most anti-islamist countries will be the countries that had to live under Islamism (I am looking at Iran with interest). But that may take decades. Regarding Shia vs Sunni, that's right but I don't think it negates my point. There were many rivalries between Stalinism vs Maoism vs Trotksism, etc, but it is still right to refer to them as communist ideologies with a common goal.

recuter 5y ago
> Clearly the sharia is in force in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, and seemingly with a strong popular support. I think you might be very interested in this article: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/04/mohammed-bin-salman-saudi-arabia-palace-interview/622822/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/04/mohamme... Take it with a giant grain of salt of course as it is an attempted puff piece. The Gulf states are not sharia. They want to be Vegas. > And I agree that it will wane over time And wax. All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again. > Regarding Shia vs Sunni, that's right but I don't think it negates my point. There were many rivalries between Stalinism vs Maoism vs Trotksism, etc, but it is still right to refer them as communist ideologies with a common goal. I don't think that is super accurate. One of them generally wants to be a state religion the other wants to take over the region and afterwards the world.