re: #279 Petero1818

I don’t believe anyone including the WSJ journalist stated the Muslim world was monolithic. The statement “Morass of war and terror emanating from the Muslim World” was specifically in reference to the administrations involvement or attempt to disengage from involvement in the Muslim World in particular in refernence to war and terrorism within it. We have seen this President disengage from Afghanistan and Iraq, only to see him sucked back in to the “Arab Spring” and its aftershocks, Iran issues, and ISIL.
As for the “Christian World” it is a little more difficult to speak of it that way is most of it tends to be led secularly but the Western world is referred to constantly and I think it could be argued that the “Western World” could be used interchangeably with the “Christian World” and it is far less monolitic than the Muslim World is.

My opinion is that Muslim vs Christian is being used as a simple label to paper over a quite complex mix of cultural, political, nationalistic, and historical baggage.*

One reason the Christian World may perhaps seem less monolithic is that it has managed to maintain a number of essentially secular nations, often in spite of efforts from within to convert them back into religious-centric** states. I also think that if more time was spent researching the various cultures that are also Muslim-majority a lot more differences and distinctions would be found.

And digging further one would probably find the same mix of the power-hungry, assholes, extremists, and those trying to get by and raise their families peacefully that exist everywhere else in the world. It’s just that some areas have been lucky.

* - The Middle East has had more than its share of being colonized, exploited, re-exploited, and used as a pawn in nation-state power games to have a much larger supply of this baggage than other places. Comes from location, location, and having resources - often without a large population base behind it.

** - And State Religions are still official in a number of these countries. Or the religious requirements for power run pretty close beneath the surface despite there not being explicit requirements.