re: #164 000G

Only to install his own clerics for political gain.

Does that include his rape room?

None of this is clear-cut. Of course Saddam prayed in Mosques and Mubarak used clerics to promote his political agenda.

But there seem to be two competing tendencies in the Islamic World, especially after the Arab Spring: a true “representative” democracy often includes fundamentalist Islamists.

The forces that mitigate Islamism and fundamentalism tend to be the military hierarchies, which often rely on foreign aid for their continued existence and do not watn to put off their sponsors by appearing too Islamist.