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September 20, 2002

Friedman - I listened to

Friedman - I listened to the New York Times' Thomas Friedman on MPR today, in a speech he gave at Temple Israel in Minneapolis last night.

Friedman was pretty much as he comes across in the Times - a slightly-less-insane Frank Rich.

But he made one excellent point.

Amid all of the speculation as to whether or not Islam is or is not a bloodthirsty religion, Friedman asked "what is the world's second-largest Moslem state?" India, of course -150 million Moslems, including the country's current president.

And while Indian moslems face many problems, they also do quite well - India's richest man is a Moslem software entrepreneur.

Worth noting, says Friedman, is that none of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were Indian. And nobody held at Guantanamo Bay is from India, either.

The reason, of course, is that India has a stable, mostly democratic government, a relatively free economic system, and a (sometimes chaotic) rule of law. The system works well enough.

The answer is to export democracy - which is where Friedman slips back into liberal cant and drives into the weeds. But it was interesting hearing that someone "gets" part of it, at least...

Posted by Mitch at September 20, 2002 10:25 PM
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