birds of a theocracy

Theocracy. It’s not a new word, but it is being
used to characterize questions associated with why
the Muslim world won’t embrace the West, especially
the United States and Israel. In particular, the
term has been bandied about since the war in Iraq
and the tsunamis wreaked havoc in the countries
bordering the Indian Ocean.

Frankly, Muslim countries are no more theocratic
than the United States. Theocracy comes from the
Greek words Theos- meaning “God�? and cratein -
meaning “to rule.�? This means that a theocracy
is a government operating under the belief that
government can only be accomplished by the divine
guidance of a higher power.

In all honesty, the U.S. government is a reflection
of traditional Christian conservative values. This
is why the Republican Party is so heavily-influenced
by the religious right and other groups like the
Christian Coalition. This is as close to theocratic
tyranny as anyone can get.

We should not be vilifying the Islamic world just
because they lean toward theocracy when the United
States does the same thing. In addition, we should
not be directing hateful rhetoric toward such
countries as displayed by writers like Lewis Fein.
So what if Sri Lanka and Indonesia rejected tsunami
relief assistance from Israel and the United States.
Other nations’ spiritual ideology is not the point;
mutual respect for each others’ beliefs is the
salient point. We say we don’t want fanatics running
the Arab world, but we removed a secular leader in
Saddam Hussein and now we have a greater chance of
producing what in theory we were trying to destroy –
a unified and theocratic Muslim world. –torrance stephens