The reality is, they fear a womans strength of character and morality. The fanatical Islamic male is afraid of his manly shortcomings/penis envy, and therefore to egotize himself treats the fair sex as nothing more than disposable property. Southern Rednecks look like choir boys next to these fools of so called islamic destiny. Just as they are raised to hate the infidel they are given a mantra that they are chosen to be allahs law givers and executioners. Why on earth they are given a seat at the table of the civilized is beyond me. Real justice would be that their woman be unable to bear a male child for five generations. Maybe then we could all have a little peace around here..

Culture affects the political system. Our own system, though related to that of the other English-speaking democracies, is very different in its psychology and in its implementation. The democracies of France, Germany and Italy also reflect cultural norms in their societies, as do those of all of the other modern, secular states. Even the reformed democratic systems of Japan, Korea and free China are adapted to the needs of the culture, whether it be the Cortes of Spain or the venerable Aelthing of Iceland - the world's oldest functioning democracy. Turkey, the only really secular government in the Muslim world, has spent all of its 80 years as a modern state in a struggle to assure that democratic, secular principles remain foremost in the political sense.

The governments of much of the rest of the world have not yet escaped the control of tribalism and religious differences. In subsaharan Africa, we have seen a near half-century of bloody post-colonial ethnic rule that has struggled to reconcile tribal and religious predilections with the adopted systems. In much of the Arab Muslim world, the governments are essentially a tribal primacy imposed on the territory that often represents former colonial boundaries.

Iraq, like Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, was a creature born of post-World War One European manipulation of fragments of the old Ottoman empire - which was itself an empire that had imposed its standards on the Arab world. Iraq was a British production, a cobbling of some former Ottoman provinces, once ruled from Baghdad, given to a Sunni Arabian princeling as a reward for having loyally hauled the British water during the war. The creation of Iraq imposed a Sunni ruling family and a Sunni religious minority on the super-majority Shia Arabs of the south and the Sunni Kurds in the north. Reform, such as it was, occured after the Baathist revolution. The secular reforms, however, were not intended as an expression of recognition of the right of individual conscience but as a means of breaking the hold of the imams and replacing it with loyalty to the Baathist state.

When we inserted ourselves into the equation, we forgot the cultural variable. When we destroyed the Baathist structure, we left a political and cultural vacuum that we were unable to fill, and that allowed the religious element to reassert itself, especially among the more conservative Shia majority of Iraqi society. Yes, we liberated Iraq from a tyrant, and, yes, the Shia majority is appreciative of that...but we need to understand that the social and religious ultra-conservative elements of the Shia are more interested in reestablishing Sharia than they are in seeking a modern, secular state where religion is not the overarching parameter of society.

We are, through our own lack of consideration of all of the facts, a victim of the law of unintended consequences.

Most sincerely,

T. J. Flapsaddle

We can wax poetic till the cow jumps over the moon, but the fact remains that Islamic fundamentalist men who prescribe to the tradition of stoning a woman because she was raped are afraid of the power a female holds in her heart and in her loins.Old rule and former conquering nations have little to do with the fact that these people have always been barbaric where woman are concerned.They hold no life to be precious if it is not conducted within the bounds of their constricted pathetic ideology and are nothing but a bunch of needle dick bug fuckers terrified by their own sexual and social inadequacies. To belay their fear of a strong womans presence and right to equality, lashing out at the most vulnerable among them to prove their manhood is the best these weak minded homo phobics can come up with.

And the 72 Virgins?

Lately, that promise has had its share of jokes; especially the one where the 72 virgins were all men! Yes, Bryan, that is an excellent observation of the male Islamic view of women; they don't like a creature who exposes their sexual and moral inadequacies.

Would that those 72 male virgins all look like dick cheney,HAH