The reason we can't succeed in the middle east is because these people have neve r experienced democracy in their

lives, they have no idea what it is. So the on ly way they know how to rule is by majority, but when there are more than one gr oup of people in a country, they have to fight each other for power because ther e isn't a clear majority from either group. And even when they have elections t here's usually massive fraud and then protests and constant attempts to overthro w the elected gov't because it's just a rule of the majority, and if the minorit y has enough power they can simply take away that rule by force if they don't li ke it. This is all due to the fact that they dont have a system of gov't to all ow many diff groups to live peacefull with each other. They're still living in the dark ages, before the times of the philosophers like Locke and montesque.

the main issue for most arab countries is they still have a tribal mentality in their cultures, and that's deeply embedded in their culture and won't be taken o ut for many years, maybe never actually. Even the good tribes would never allow other tribes, good or bad, to take power because it isn't fair to them. That's why the founders were so brilliant. They realized the only way to solve a prob lem like this is to create a constitution and system of checks and balances that all groups live by equally. So if there are disputes over power, they can be r esolved through the system they created. The founders knew our country had that same potential as the middle east does today for chaos cause we had indians, ch ristians, catholics, etc living together and each wanted as much power as possib le. I also just realized that Islam itself is to blame for a lot of this beca use Islam imo is the primary reason much of the arab world today is stuck in the middle ages. It teaches sunnis and shi'ites to hate and kill each other, to ke ep women uneducated and subservient, and that material success isn't important a nd that studying the quran is more important than studying for a career. The root cause of this is that Islam hasn't been modified enough and hasn't caug ht up to modern times. It's dogmas are pretty much impossible to follow in modern day civilized culture , especially regarding women, so the only way to prevent modern day culture from taking over (which terrifies many muslim men, especially imams, who have all th eir power from keeping people, especially women, subservient) is to ban it from their countries completely, which is what we've seen in most arab countries. So the people still practicing Islam, even the good people, have no ability to a djust and enter the modern civilized world. That's part of what the 2nd Vatican council did for Catholicism, and our popes constantly update our understand of the faith to make it applicable and relevant to modern times and modern day issu es. But the muslim faith's leaders haven't adapted Islam to the modern world, p artly because they know they would have to give up a lot of their power, especia lly the rulers who use political Islam to rule over people (iran, etc). But als o, there's a certain intellectual deficit or laziness among muslim scholars to a dapt their religion to the modern world because it can be done, but they know it would be hard because many teachings of Islam just don't fit in with western cu lture (the way people should dress, how women should interact with men, how peop le should be punished, etc). The court system of most arab countries is based o n Islam which is very tribal and brutal, for example. The reality is, maybe Islam simply can't be adapted to the 21st century's civili zed world. Much of it's teachings are harsh and ancient. They're not the kind of teachings we see in the bible that can apply to any day and age, they're very specific but also not very applicable to modern day civilized living. That's w hy we see the clash of cultures in every country where muslims start to grow in number among the westerners (France and Australia are the best examples). For the masses of muslims living in the arab countries that are still fighting e

ach other and preventing people from being free to join civilized society, they need a new understanding or interpretation of Islam that would allow them to pra ctice its core principles (daily prayer, humility, fasting, frugality, etc) whil e abandoning some of its more ancient and rudimentary teachings (killing gays, a rranged marriages, not letting women hold positions of power, etc). The fact is many of the teachings of Islam are incompatible wtih individual free dom. That's the main difference between muslim countries and the western world. Freedom is foreign to most of the people of those countries The people there don't think as individuals, they practice groupthink, meaning t hey think and act usually according to what their leaders and all the people in their group say and do. If these people had more freedom to form their own opin ions and even question some of the harsher teachings of the quran, they could ac tually start to understand their enemies and the groups of people they were taug ht to hate. That would allow them to develop tolerance for these different grou ps, and once you develop tolerance, you can start to live in peace together and even govern together. The problem with Islam is that the Quran teaches that Islam must dominate other religions because it's the one true religion. Of course the only way to ensure this is by force, which is what muslim countries have attempted to do against op posing countries ever since Islam was founded. So this by definition meant that countries with a majority of muslims had to be ruled by the muslim faith, not a secular gov't. This mixture of religion and gov't is why democracy was never a n option for most arab countries until recent times. Islam teaches that certain things must be done a certain way and the only way to make sure muslims as a whole are doing these things is by having leaders who us e their gov't to enforce these rules. In this way people who want to be free and actually learn about other religions or choose not to follow all the teachings of Islam are prevented from doing so, and thus they are forced to remain in the dark ages intellectually. It seems muslim countries have two options to solve the problems they face 1) h ave a worldwide meeting with muslim leaders, rulers, scholars, and imams to chan ge the teachings of Islam that are incompatible with freedom and democracy or 2)keep enforcing Islam in arab countries and preventing modern culture (it's goo d and bad qualities) from getting in. The antidote to the oppression in these countries and the fighting in the middle east is freedom, but the question is how can that be achieved with people who h ave no idea what freedom is and aren't in any way prepared for it? We can't force it upon them because it has to come from within, their culture ha s to change, and once they see that, that will open their minds up to the possib ility that freedom to choose what way of life they wanna follow is better than w hat they're experiencing now. Ultimately, the problems in the middle nd even sects within Islam hating each . It's followers are still practicing dle ages, except they're practicing it a whole lot has changed since then. east go beyond tribes hating each other a other. Imo it comes down to Islam itself a religion that was formed before the mid as if nothing's changed since then. But

So the conflict we see muslims having with each other imo is really just an exte rnal manifestation of their own internal conflict they're having with themselves caused by the reality that they're living in the year 2013 with all the advance s and equality we've created in the civilized world, but they aren't a part of t hat. If nothing changes they will keep fighting each other because they don't know an

y other way of life, fighting is normal for them, just like peace is normal for us. If they weren't fighting each other, what would they be doing? If you think about it, if a country lives in peace its people have a greater cha nce of having some freedom, and if they live this way long enough in the modern day world, they will be exposed to more modern habits and ways of living and eve ntually start thinking independently instead of in groups. When enough people have tasted freedom and individual success, they don't want f ighting anymore because that negates all their hard work. They didn't work hard so they could watch their homes being destroyed and family members being killed , as their country falls apart. They worked hard so they could enjoy the fruits of their labor and have something to pass on to their kids. If enough people have even some freedom to think and have their minds opened to what life is like without being solely dominated by Islam, they'll want democrac y, as we saw in Egypt when the people gathered in the streets to overthrow the M B. But the only way to start this process imo is for people within the muslim world to start asking questions and being willing to show other muslims how to live i n a democracy while still adhering to the most important teachings of Islam. Muslims in america have done it, so that means muslims in other countries can do it to, they just need an example to follow, and then the freedom from their rul ers to do it. The problem right now isn't just from muslim extremists who have "hijacked Islam ", it's from some of the teachings of the Quran itself. These are problematic a nd must either be re-interpreted or done away with in order to make Islam compat ible with the modern world as Christianity has become. If you think about it, a legitimate religion will always be able to adapt to cha nging times from one century to the next because it's teachings are universal tr uths that never change and are applicable to all people from all times because t hey're based on the human condition and our relationship with the world and with God. So if Islam can't do this in its current form then it must either change or go e xtinct, because the only other option is for us to allow Islam to bring the rest of the world back to the Dark Ages, and we aren't willing to do that. Once these changes or adaptations to Islam are made, muslims in the countries th at are currently fighting will become tolerant, or at least their kids will be, and then they'll be able to live together because they'll be living as individua ls instead of tribes, all pursuing their own goals and dreams while still having a strong sense of community and faith. Once they can live together, they can govern together, and then they can create their own constitutions and systems of gov't that can allow their people to live in as much freedom as possible, and thus in peace.