OT: Al Ahram

[Possum]

No. In this thread, I have only talked about the Middle East. It was others who tried to extend this to moslems resident elsewhere in the world.

And Pakistan is not considered a middle eastern nation, is it?

I have no idea how old you are, so this question may be wildly inappropriate, but did you spend any time in Iran before the revolution?

Pre-revolutionary Iran was in many ways much like the Turkey of today, (barring the topless beaches, of course!).

There was a sizable, educated, secular middle class. And they drank wine. Hell, it was Omar Khayyam who said, "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou."

And everybody was so sure that the military would keep Khomeini in line, that the fundamentalists would never be a real problem. Right up to the last moment, they were so serenely confident of that.

Yet somehow, it all turned to [censored], almost overnight. Somehow, the military, (best trained and equipped in the Middle East, outside of Israel) failed to intervene. Some mysterious religious thing happened, and the generals just....folded. Suddenly, bright Paris-educated women, who had been wearing Parisian fashions last week, were in chador. And their husbands were suddenly saying "Allah Akbar", banging their heads on the carpet 5 times a day, and desperately pretending to have been good observant muslims all along.

And all those solid-gold contracts we had were suddenly worthless, assets nationalised, or just destroyed. Gods only know how many millions Schlumberger alone was ripped off for. Gods only know how many westerners were murdered, or just beaten silly, robbed, and sent scampering for home.

So when I look at Turkey, and say "maybe...", that's what I'm remembering. It could happen again.

Now, there are important differences.

Persia/Iran was the only nation in the middle east with a Shia (AKA Shiite) majority; in all other middle eastern countries, the Shia were a relatively small, poor, and generally despised minority. Some people might argue that only the volatility of the Shia made the Persian revolution happen. I don't know if I buy this theory or not, but it's out there.

Others might point to a fundamental difference in the nature of the Turkish and pre-revolution Iranian militaries. Maybe this counts for something. I won't pretend to be sufficiently well-informed to say.

I'm not saying I expect Turkey to go the way of Iran. I am only saying it's entirely possible.

Which is why, when I listed our friends in the middle east, I used the qualifier I did with regards to Turkey.