Sound like you’re challenging this report due to personal anti-Vietnam biases and complete ignorance of where Vietnam is, today. Distorting facts won’t get your arguments anywhere either:
1. From 1993 to now is 22 years and contradicts “full diplomatic relations were recent, in the last ten years, as VCP ideological resistance (and ties with anti-Israel nations) hindered formal ties until some political reforms were instituted in Hanoi.”. What reforms in Hanoi that you referenced and in general, Vietnam still voting anti-Israel at UN, unchanged!
2. What is this with Chinese restaurants in Tel-Aviv ran by Vietnamese from HCM city and not Taiwanese? Jealousy or food critic?
3. With the population of 92 millions Vietnamese, are you worried that their 200,000 Cham Vietnamese and few Muslim tourists/students to will protest and influence Vietnam-Israel relation? Isn’t comparing Vietnam to Malaysia and Indonesia in term of Muslim influence is absurd?
4. Open-source information and classified defense, economic data: what did the author write that you can’t find in Israeli and Vietnamese press? The 1.2 billion mutual trade this year, the 250 million maritime development project or the fact that SAE Afikim-Vietnam’s 500-millions dairy operation has been, successfully running for 3 years? Are you not aware that technology transfer of Galil weapons already produce AK-47 replacement for Vietnamese army as well as negotiation to have Israeli Spider missile systems made in Vietnam? And how about those Israeli drones flying all over Vietnam? I learn these things from Vietnamese newspapers and suggest you do the same!
Andrew Huxley () Samuhadda Vicchedani: An Overlooked Source on the Dhammathats (Introducing Daw Than Saw’s Translation), SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, Volume 5, Issues 1&2, Spring & Autumn 2007, ISSN 1479-8484
Thank you, Peter, for the link… and the name calling. I’ve seen it before here. I cannot however recall asserting that you had no ties with Myanmar, only that you’re the one who wants to bar people from commenting if they don’t or haven’t been to a country.
Olivia, Israel has had good relations with Burma since U Nu. This is nothing new, and it has been primarily agricultural and scientific, only becoming military when now former President Thein Sein took over. Moshe Segar has written extensively on Burma/Myanmar-Israel relations. It is unfair to focus only on military aid. Israel provided millions of dollars in expertise in hydrology, rice farming, hydroponics, cell culture, DNA technology and many other skill sets. I state again (I have said this many times) U Nu vociferously defended inviting Israel to the Bandung Conference in 1955, the only member of the Committee to do so. U Nu is remembered with affection by a younger Shimon Peres, the only one still alive in Israel, who had known him well.
Mr Rakhmat, I concur with your analysis, based on direct source information in my hand. I, however, would like to know your citations, as much of what you write is NOT open-source at all. Thus, it would be illuminating to know where you got your information. Please remember, full diplomatic relations were recent, in the last ten years, as VCP ideological resistance (and ties with anti-Israel nations) hindered formal ties until some political reforms were instituted in Hanoi. Indeed, most “Chinese” restaurants in Tel-Aviv are run by ethnic Chinese from HCMC or ethnic Vietnamese, and only a few Taiwanese actually run these restaurants. Likewise when can get Halal food in Vietnam (which is Kosher) as there are Cham Muslims in Vietnam, as well as a few Muslim Vietnamese and Muslim tourists and students. Israelis are no longer rare in Vietnam, nor even in Indonesia (less so, Malaysia). However, some of what you write, as a graduate student in Manchester, would be mere speculation, neither the Israeli nor Vietnamese Defence Ministry publishes any information on ties between the two and even economic data in Vietnam is classified. Please reveal your sources and if you base your commentary on published material, I think several people (if not nations) would be most interested. You may choose not to, which is fine, but then as an Intel Analyst, I will state that you are making suppositions without validation, even if I agree with the overall tenor of your comments.
In light of Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Israel in September this year, Myanmar is also furthering defence cooperation with Israel.
From the Global New Light of Myanmar, 24 November 2015, where MPs discussed military cooperation in parliament:
“Deputy Minister for Defence Commodore Aung Thaw clarified an MoU on military cooperation in the defence sector and an agreement on the protection of secret information between Myanmar and Israel at the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw on Monday.
“The MoU covers military training, the development of defence and security policies, legal matters in the defence sector, information sharing, humanitarian and relief operations, military education in economics, science and technology and military medical science, according to the deputy minister.”
The US led camp which can include Australia to all intents and purposes. Sorry if I touched a nerve but they do hunt in a pack especially these globalised coalition days.
When the Western media say the ‘international community’ they also tend to mean their own dominant states that pass judgment and set the rules.
What do you mean by “the west”? Do you want to refer to “occidental rationalism”, a direction (going west) or what?
If you intend to refer to Europe and North-America, please be aware of the rather far reaching differences within these huge regions! Use proper categories instead of geographic directions!
I agree it’s always knowingly or unknowingly a diversion from the hidden agenda – control of resources, influence and market share closest to the heart of global capitalism (the one and by far the most dominant ism studiously glossed over and let off the hook) by treating the issue like a predominantly religious contest and ‘clash of civilisations’ which wonderfully lends colourful window dressing (Northern Ireland provided a good example of this red herring albeit as big as a whale as someone once memorably said reflecting a visceral reaction to such cultural differences between communities).
The crusades notwithstanding there was no serious attempt at intervention from the Islamic world when the Reformation and its internecine wars broke out in Christendom. In contrast the Sunni-Shia divide is ruthlessly exploited by the West today.
But I agree with the author that the adjective in ‘political Islam’ is redundant. It’s just catching up (like China) in its diverse and disparate ways backed by the oil money and Wahhabism and has begun to flex its muscles following the shining example of the Christian West, compounded by the latter’s historical and perpetual meddling in the Middle East now effectively stirring up a hornets nest. Trouble is the West is running with the hare and chasing with the hounds in its inimitable way.
I am just wondering if this article was passed to Dr.Rachel Rudolf in an envelope given by the military propaganda department.
Look at reality.
Canned fruit.
The 3rd attempt by the attorney general to quash the decision of courts which dismissed the criminal charges against Andy.
Slavery.
An investigation into the NGO that broke the story into human trafficking and the graves of people murdered by the slave traders.
These people had been operating with impunity in the south for years without anyone lifting a finger. The border area is under constant patrol by the military.
A ship impounded for alleged usage of slavery mysteriously leaves port UNSEEN by the authorities.
The police unit investigating human trafficking has been disbanded and the policeman in charge was forced to resign for his own safety after being posted to the south where the gangs operate from.
It can only be assumed that the police were after bigger fish and disbanded before they could arrest more senior people.
All the committees and laws passed cannot and will not be implemented to the fool. There has already been one lockout by the fishing industry and the brave general gave in.
May I be allowed to comment on my own post? Let me stress that I have absolutely no inside information, but this much is pretty obvious isn’t it? Since my last post, the Auditor General came out to state that 63 million baht from the government’s central fund had been used for construction of the park – apparently spontaneously, and contradicting Prayuth’s statement that no tax money had been involved. When has the Auditor General ever audited anything to do with the Army? And Prayuth and co. felt it necessary to warn the NACC not to get involved. Under normal circumstances, the NACC could be absolutely guaranteed to whitewash the dictatorship. More recently Abhisit has publicly raised questions about the scheme. In Thailand, when the Auditor General starts auditing, the Democrat leader starts talking about democracy, and even the anti-corruption commission is suspected by the army of threatening to act against corruption, you know something is up, don’t you?
Very interesting and stimulant article, but I think there are some points that are not really convincing. I’m not expert and I’m not fluent in English but I would like to drop some lines to explain my perplexity.
What makes me perplex is first the idea to define Islamism trough a phenomenology of the spirit, as the end point of a historical process within Islam: there’s a 1st stage that concerns the prophetic experience and the direct impact on the community; a 2nd stage that creates a tradition and a system based on the holy book and the prophet biography; a 3rd stage that consists in a new level of consciousness (not new doctrine), a reassertion of Islam as strong identity, as “historical identification or point of moral attachment” to be promoted in its autonomy not only to be defended. Historically this process would have found a strong motivation and impetus after a millennium of contention between Christianity and Islam, after the rejection of Muhammad and the following polemic “campaign” against him, and more recently after the colonization. The 3rd stage would be the context that explains the political orientation of Islam today
The explanation is clear but in my opinion it suffers from the limits of a phenomenology of the spirit: to consider only one pattern of an evolution, to consider it as a process with “phases” (like stations of a train platform) and, in particular, as a process with an internal “necessity”.
Why to put the moment of the consciousness at the end of the process? Was is not possible in other historical periods? Was it not possible a political approach from the beginning?
For sure this explanation can describe a possible evolution of Islam toward ideology. But other directions are possible and they depend on several factors: economic, political, social, … And history is not always following the teleological direction of the consciousness, based on sequential phases.
The second point which is not convincing me is the idea of Europe mentioned in this article. “After all” – according to the author – “what is Europe, and what now is the West, other than post-Christian Christendom?”. And furthermore: “Out of that historic refusal [of Muhammad as their prophet] ‘Europe’ and ‘the West’ were born”. Actually the books saved in the monasteries during the middle age were not all belonging to the Christian tradition: following the Paul Valery’s lesson, historically the Christianity is only one of the roots of Europe, and found its limit in the Roman rights and the Greek science. And in the 18th century – le Siècle des Lumiere,- it was possible to create a new cultural unity and style completely independent from the Christianity. It’s not a case that Christianity is not included in the current European constitution. I don’t think it’s historically correct to speak about a millennium of contention between Christianity and Islam.
To conclude I would like to mention my personal experience in Belgium and now in Indonesia: without considering extreme cases, in both countries I experienced how Muslims (with their strong identity and even with their political ideas) can be perfectly part of that “dialog of differences” which I believe represents the good side of the globalization today.
The risk of a political use of the religion, the risk to radicalize an identity, of creating an idea of purity that cannot tolerate the difference is always possible, and it depends on several factors. I think the duty of an intellectual is to warn about this possibility, not to impose compulsory pattern to the reality.
Certainly, the Christian occident and Islamic orient had strong impacts on each other. In fact, to a large degree the history of both civilizations can only be understood in its interdependency. However, civilisations tend to adapt certain aspects, and ignore or reject other aspects. Thus, a question is what went differently? Here I want to draw attention to three main issues:
1. The bureaucratization of Christianity. M. Weber speaks about the routinization of charisma through bureaucratization. This was exactly what happened with the rise of the Catholic Church, and what did not happen in Islam. Bureaucratization was highly integrative, and provided a background for later rationalization, and finally coping with modernity, which Islam could not.
2. Christianity and the church were only one base for occidental civilization. The other pillar was the development of “civil law”, based on the Codex Justinian. The re-discovery of this codex in the 11th century triggered the rise of universities, gave rise to professionals (lawyers), and limited the scope of religious or canonical law. This was one base from which science and rational legality could evolve.
3. The occidental civilisation was always split into a southern, Mediterranean based Romanised part and a northern, Germanic part based on the North-sea and Baltic. There were continuous shifts of the centres between both parts (from Venice to Antwerp, to Genoa, to Amsterdam etc.). This allowed for the emergence of heterodoxies within one civilisation that pushed the further development of philosophies, theologies and finally sciences.
The result was that the occident, although until the 17th century less developed then the orient, could modernize, while the orient could not.
One reason why the Islamic civilization rejected these developments was that they would have challenged the feudal political and ideological order. Aren’t the Islamic states namely Saudi Arabia, the Emirates etc. still basically feudal? Islamism is a version of modernisation of Islam without secularization. Islamisation can be supported by the feudal states so that they won’t be challenged. Are other alternatives for modernisation possible?
I should have begun the above post with “Had the Americans not set them up…..”.
Before slagging off at the world’s policy elite, one should get one’s own house in order!
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
Vietnam: Israel’s closest ASEAN partner
Sound like you’re challenging this report due to personal anti-Vietnam biases and complete ignorance of where Vietnam is, today. Distorting facts won’t get your arguments anywhere either:
1. From 1993 to now is 22 years and contradicts “full diplomatic relations were recent, in the last ten years, as VCP ideological resistance (and ties with anti-Israel nations) hindered formal ties until some political reforms were instituted in Hanoi.”. What reforms in Hanoi that you referenced and in general, Vietnam still voting anti-Israel at UN, unchanged!
2. What is this with Chinese restaurants in Tel-Aviv ran by Vietnamese from HCM city and not Taiwanese? Jealousy or food critic?
3. With the population of 92 millions Vietnamese, are you worried that their 200,000 Cham Vietnamese and few Muslim tourists/students to will protest and influence Vietnam-Israel relation? Isn’t comparing Vietnam to Malaysia and Indonesia in term of Muslim influence is absurd?
4. Open-source information and classified defense, economic data: what did the author write that you can’t find in Israeli and Vietnamese press? The 1.2 billion mutual trade this year, the 250 million maritime development project or the fact that SAE Afikim-Vietnam’s 500-millions dairy operation has been, successfully running for 3 years? Are you not aware that technology transfer of Galil weapons already produce AK-47 replacement for Vietnamese army as well as negotiation to have Israeli Spider missile systems made in Vietnam? And how about those Israeli drones flying all over Vietnam? I learn these things from Vietnamese newspapers and suggest you do the same!
Remembering the work of Professor Andrew Huxley
Article not included above:
Andrew Huxley () Samuhadda Vicchedani: An Overlooked Source on the Dhammathats (Introducing Daw Than Saw’s Translation), SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, Volume 5, Issues 1&2, Spring & Autumn 2007, ISSN 1479-8484
https://www.soas.ac.uk/sbbr/editions/soas-bulletin-of-burma-research-volume-5-issues-12.html
Can democratic Myanmar lead ASEAN?
Thank you, Peter, for the link… and the name calling. I’ve seen it before here. I cannot however recall asserting that you had no ties with Myanmar, only that you’re the one who wants to bar people from commenting if they don’t or haven’t been to a country.
Political implications of Thailand’s royal succession
From recent NYT article pertaining to Thailand’s Crown Property assets is estimated at US$53 billion
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/opinion/the-thai-monarchy-and-its-money.html?_r=0
Can democratic Myanmar lead ASEAN?
For Moe Aung, the doubter and cynic. Read about my Burmese Jewish cousin. Yes, you had believed I had no ties to Myanmar. Read on:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34966494
Vietnam: Israel’s closest ASEAN partner
Olivia, Israel has had good relations with Burma since U Nu. This is nothing new, and it has been primarily agricultural and scientific, only becoming military when now former President Thein Sein took over. Moshe Segar has written extensively on Burma/Myanmar-Israel relations. It is unfair to focus only on military aid. Israel provided millions of dollars in expertise in hydrology, rice farming, hydroponics, cell culture, DNA technology and many other skill sets. I state again (I have said this many times) U Nu vociferously defended inviting Israel to the Bandung Conference in 1955, the only member of the Committee to do so. U Nu is remembered with affection by a younger Shimon Peres, the only one still alive in Israel, who had known him well.
Mr Rakhmat, I concur with your analysis, based on direct source information in my hand. I, however, would like to know your citations, as much of what you write is NOT open-source at all. Thus, it would be illuminating to know where you got your information. Please remember, full diplomatic relations were recent, in the last ten years, as VCP ideological resistance (and ties with anti-Israel nations) hindered formal ties until some political reforms were instituted in Hanoi. Indeed, most “Chinese” restaurants in Tel-Aviv are run by ethnic Chinese from HCMC or ethnic Vietnamese, and only a few Taiwanese actually run these restaurants. Likewise when can get Halal food in Vietnam (which is Kosher) as there are Cham Muslims in Vietnam, as well as a few Muslim Vietnamese and Muslim tourists and students. Israelis are no longer rare in Vietnam, nor even in Indonesia (less so, Malaysia). However, some of what you write, as a graduate student in Manchester, would be mere speculation, neither the Israeli nor Vietnamese Defence Ministry publishes any information on ties between the two and even economic data in Vietnam is classified. Please reveal your sources and if you base your commentary on published material, I think several people (if not nations) would be most interested. You may choose not to, which is fine, but then as an Intel Analyst, I will state that you are making suppositions without validation, even if I agree with the overall tenor of your comments.
Vietnam: Israel’s closest ASEAN partner
Technological and military cooperation without foreign-policy entanglement. Hallelujah!
Vietnam: Israel’s closest ASEAN partner
In light of Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Israel in September this year, Myanmar is also furthering defence cooperation with Israel.
From the Global New Light of Myanmar, 24 November 2015, where MPs discussed military cooperation in parliament:
“Deputy Minister for Defence Commodore Aung Thaw clarified an MoU on military cooperation in the defence sector and an agreement on the protection of secret information between Myanmar and Israel at the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw on Monday.
“The MoU covers military training, the development of defence and security policies, legal matters in the defence sector, information sharing, humanitarian and relief operations, military education in economics, science and technology and military medical science, according to the deputy minister.”
“Some sections” of the bill’s were approved.
See: Global New Light of Myanmar, http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/GNLM2015-11-24-red.pdf
What is “Islamism”?
The US led camp which can include Australia to all intents and purposes. Sorry if I touched a nerve but they do hunt in a pack especially these globalised coalition days.
When the Western media say the ‘international community’ they also tend to mean their own dominant states that pass judgment and set the rules.
What is “Islamism”?
What do you mean by “the west”? Do you want to refer to “occidental rationalism”, a direction (going west) or what?
If you intend to refer to Europe and North-America, please be aware of the rather far reaching differences within these huge regions! Use proper categories instead of geographic directions!
Wielding the pen as a torch for freedom
[…] – Source: The Malaymail Online […]
What is “Islamism”?
I agree it’s always knowingly or unknowingly a diversion from the hidden agenda – control of resources, influence and market share closest to the heart of global capitalism (the one and by far the most dominant ism studiously glossed over and let off the hook) by treating the issue like a predominantly religious contest and ‘clash of civilisations’ which wonderfully lends colourful window dressing (Northern Ireland provided a good example of this red herring albeit as big as a whale as someone once memorably said reflecting a visceral reaction to such cultural differences between communities).
The crusades notwithstanding there was no serious attempt at intervention from the Islamic world when the Reformation and its internecine wars broke out in Christendom. In contrast the Sunni-Shia divide is ruthlessly exploited by the West today.
But I agree with the author that the adjective in ‘political Islam’ is redundant. It’s just catching up (like China) in its diverse and disparate ways backed by the oil money and Wahhabism and has begun to flex its muscles following the shining example of the Christian West, compounded by the latter’s historical and perpetual meddling in the Middle East now effectively stirring up a hornets nest. Trouble is the West is running with the hare and chasing with the hounds in its inimitable way.
Turning the tide on Thailand’s human trafficking
I am just wondering if this article was passed to Dr.Rachel Rudolf in an envelope given by the military propaganda department.
Look at reality.
Canned fruit.
The 3rd attempt by the attorney general to quash the decision of courts which dismissed the criminal charges against Andy.
Slavery.
An investigation into the NGO that broke the story into human trafficking and the graves of people murdered by the slave traders.
These people had been operating with impunity in the south for years without anyone lifting a finger. The border area is under constant patrol by the military.
A ship impounded for alleged usage of slavery mysteriously leaves port UNSEEN by the authorities.
The police unit investigating human trafficking has been disbanded and the policeman in charge was forced to resign for his own safety after being posted to the south where the gangs operate from.
It can only be assumed that the police were after bigger fish and disbanded before they could arrest more senior people.
All the committees and laws passed cannot and will not be implemented to the fool. There has already been one lockout by the fishing industry and the brave general gave in.
Still better than Thaksin?
May I be allowed to comment on my own post? Let me stress that I have absolutely no inside information, but this much is pretty obvious isn’t it? Since my last post, the Auditor General came out to state that 63 million baht from the government’s central fund had been used for construction of the park – apparently spontaneously, and contradicting Prayuth’s statement that no tax money had been involved. When has the Auditor General ever audited anything to do with the Army? And Prayuth and co. felt it necessary to warn the NACC not to get involved. Under normal circumstances, the NACC could be absolutely guaranteed to whitewash the dictatorship. More recently Abhisit has publicly raised questions about the scheme. In Thailand, when the Auditor General starts auditing, the Democrat leader starts talking about democracy, and even the anti-corruption commission is suspected by the army of threatening to act against corruption, you know something is up, don’t you?
Royalty and democracy in Thailand
Well said Fredrik. And I wonder where Prem is ? Has anyone seen him in public recently ? Maybe a seance for good old General Prem also ?
Royalty and democracy in Thailand
I think you would need the help of a famous soothsayer for that. Due to recent events, a séance is now required to contact him.
What is “Islamism”?
Very interesting and stimulant article, but I think there are some points that are not really convincing. I’m not expert and I’m not fluent in English but I would like to drop some lines to explain my perplexity.
What makes me perplex is first the idea to define Islamism trough a phenomenology of the spirit, as the end point of a historical process within Islam: there’s a 1st stage that concerns the prophetic experience and the direct impact on the community; a 2nd stage that creates a tradition and a system based on the holy book and the prophet biography; a 3rd stage that consists in a new level of consciousness (not new doctrine), a reassertion of Islam as strong identity, as “historical identification or point of moral attachment” to be promoted in its autonomy not only to be defended. Historically this process would have found a strong motivation and impetus after a millennium of contention between Christianity and Islam, after the rejection of Muhammad and the following polemic “campaign” against him, and more recently after the colonization. The 3rd stage would be the context that explains the political orientation of Islam today
The explanation is clear but in my opinion it suffers from the limits of a phenomenology of the spirit: to consider only one pattern of an evolution, to consider it as a process with “phases” (like stations of a train platform) and, in particular, as a process with an internal “necessity”.
Why to put the moment of the consciousness at the end of the process? Was is not possible in other historical periods? Was it not possible a political approach from the beginning?
For sure this explanation can describe a possible evolution of Islam toward ideology. But other directions are possible and they depend on several factors: economic, political, social, … And history is not always following the teleological direction of the consciousness, based on sequential phases.
The second point which is not convincing me is the idea of Europe mentioned in this article. “After all” – according to the author – “what is Europe, and what now is the West, other than post-Christian Christendom?”. And furthermore: “Out of that historic refusal [of Muhammad as their prophet] ‘Europe’ and ‘the West’ were born”. Actually the books saved in the monasteries during the middle age were not all belonging to the Christian tradition: following the Paul Valery’s lesson, historically the Christianity is only one of the roots of Europe, and found its limit in the Roman rights and the Greek science. And in the 18th century – le Siècle des Lumiere,- it was possible to create a new cultural unity and style completely independent from the Christianity. It’s not a case that Christianity is not included in the current European constitution. I don’t think it’s historically correct to speak about a millennium of contention between Christianity and Islam.
To conclude I would like to mention my personal experience in Belgium and now in Indonesia: without considering extreme cases, in both countries I experienced how Muslims (with their strong identity and even with their political ideas) can be perfectly part of that “dialog of differences” which I believe represents the good side of the globalization today.
The risk of a political use of the religion, the risk to radicalize an identity, of creating an idea of purity that cannot tolerate the difference is always possible, and it depends on several factors. I think the duty of an intellectual is to warn about this possibility, not to impose compulsory pattern to the reality.
What is “Islamism”?
Certainly, the Christian occident and Islamic orient had strong impacts on each other. In fact, to a large degree the history of both civilizations can only be understood in its interdependency. However, civilisations tend to adapt certain aspects, and ignore or reject other aspects. Thus, a question is what went differently? Here I want to draw attention to three main issues:
1. The bureaucratization of Christianity. M. Weber speaks about the routinization of charisma through bureaucratization. This was exactly what happened with the rise of the Catholic Church, and what did not happen in Islam. Bureaucratization was highly integrative, and provided a background for later rationalization, and finally coping with modernity, which Islam could not.
2. Christianity and the church were only one base for occidental civilization. The other pillar was the development of “civil law”, based on the Codex Justinian. The re-discovery of this codex in the 11th century triggered the rise of universities, gave rise to professionals (lawyers), and limited the scope of religious or canonical law. This was one base from which science and rational legality could evolve.
3. The occidental civilisation was always split into a southern, Mediterranean based Romanised part and a northern, Germanic part based on the North-sea and Baltic. There were continuous shifts of the centres between both parts (from Venice to Antwerp, to Genoa, to Amsterdam etc.). This allowed for the emergence of heterodoxies within one civilisation that pushed the further development of philosophies, theologies and finally sciences.
The result was that the occident, although until the 17th century less developed then the orient, could modernize, while the orient could not.
One reason why the Islamic civilization rejected these developments was that they would have challenged the feudal political and ideological order. Aren’t the Islamic states namely Saudi Arabia, the Emirates etc. still basically feudal? Islamism is a version of modernisation of Islam without secularization. Islamisation can be supported by the feudal states so that they won’t be challenged. Are other alternatives for modernisation possible?
What is “Islamism”?
I should have begun the above post with “Had the Americans not set them up…..”.
Before slagging off at the world’s policy elite, one should get one’s own house in order!
Royalty and democracy in Thailand
Could this accurately predict the next Thai coup, despite the uncertainty of cultural differences, opaque royalist manoeuverings, etc., etc. ?? : http://www.afcea.org/content/?q=Article-data-analytics-programs-help-predict-global-unrest