Weirdly enough, the Islamist formerly-labelled-as-terrorist militant leader is making quite a lot of sensible moves and well thought out public statements. Maybe it’s illogical, but I’m getting somewhat hopeful about Syria’s future.
Oh yeah absolutely. I think it’s just hard for people to remember, but dictatorships used to transition to democracies all the time.
I do wonder, though, if it has happened to a country with so many foreign actors involved.
The life of the Prophet Mohammed sas. is a great example of statecraft, going from a persecuted outcast in his own city to challenging the Roman and Persian empire within two decades. People saying Islam would not or should not be political are missing the key notions about how social and religious values are deeply integrated with politics.
The same holds true for Jesus, who challenged the corruption of politics and religion in his time and Moses, who is the O.G. insurrectionist liberator. Also Moses is the most mentioned prophet in the holy Quran.
All Abrahamic religions are inherently political.
One could also argue that all politics are inherently religious, creating false objects of worship, like money and the individual, glorified dictators or a twisted understanding of collectives.
Imagine people took the message of Jesus serious to stop hoarding wealth and give to the poor. Truly a scary prospect. What comes next? Treating the sick without charging them?
Not really analogous, I think? The Taliban are and continue to be wackos, and the US-supported government in between the Taliban regimes was always obviously made up of incompetent crooks and grifters.
It is a little bit similar in that the Taliban also said that they were going to be more moderate. That didn’t last very long though.
