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Pakistan is a pretty screwed up country in a great many ways, and much of their problems are due to Islam having such a central role in the identify of the coun
by InclinedPlane 13y ago
Pakistan is a pretty screwed up country in a great many ways, and much of their problems are due to Islam having such a central role in the identify of the country. I think they have the capacity to get past their problems but they have as difficult a problem ahead of them as does Iraq, Syria, or Lebanon.
On a meta-level it's fascinating how the vast majority of countries in the world still tend to be mono-ethnic "nation states". Even in the most westernized parts of Europe there are overarching tendencies for nations to fly apart into their component sub-ethnicities rather than to stick together based on belief in common values. Look at Britain and the ongoing discontent of Wales and Scottland, let alone Northern Ireland. Or Belgium threatening to split into two countries. Or the Basques in Spain. Or the history of Czechoslovakia, the USSR, Yugoslavia, etc.
- enupten 13y agoIt is but a surprise, that the states in India have not seceded.
- baldfat 13y agowell that anti-Islam rant might work IF there was no Islamic nation that wasn't peaceful.
- charlieflowers 13y agoI think you have a quadruple negative going on there. Not trying to nitpick, but it was too hard for my currently sleepy brain to parse.
- thwest 13y agoAppropriately reflecting the cognitive impairment of bigotry
- InclinedPlane 13y agoIf I said that "much of the problems in the deep South in the United States are due to the prominence of Christianity in their culture" nobody would bat an eye, and nobody would read it as being anti-Christian. Denying that there are very real problems within the Islamic world, some of which are core to the religion, is an example of naivete, ignorance, or propaganda.
- thwest 13y agoConsider my eye batted. I don't think Jesus was a huge proponent of slaves.
- rjuyal 13y agoTotally agreed with you. Accepting the problem is the first step to fixing it. Simply denying will lead no where.
- dragonwriter 13y ago> If I said that "much of the problems in the deep South in the United States are due to the prominence of Christianity in their culture" nobody would bat an eye I would. There's a complex two-way interplay between the particular forms of Christianity that are common in the deep South and the deep seated history of conflict, division, etc., in the region, but to portray the problems as the result of Christianity qua Christianity is, at best, simply useless.
- rodgerd 13y ago> and much of their problems are due Islam having such a central role in the identify of the country. Not really. The East Pakistan/West Pakistan war (which resulted in an independant Bangladesh) was between Muslim groups with little religious difference, but huge language, class, and cultral bigotry, with the Urdu-speaking West Pakistani-dominated millitary having a significant role. Islam was pretty irrelevant. And my impression is that much of the harshest religious conflict in India itself owes plenty to Hindu extremists. (From my POV the biggest problem in Pakistan is that a minority of usually millitary-backed elites remain in power, no matter how corrupt or awful they are, because they attract US support so long as they pretended to battle Communism during the Cold War, and now radical Islam. But actual Pakistanis or real experts on Pakistani politics may wish to correct me.)
- TheLegace 13y agoIt brings me memories of the violent riots because certain stores were celebrating Valentines Day in India.
- linux_devil 13y agoThere were no such riots , citations please !