One of the reasons I was so P.O.ed at the moronic attitude towards the Port Deal was precisely because it was involving people who are trying to be Moslem and to turn to the Western way of doing things. Kicking that branch of modernity in the ME is exactly the wrong thing to do. It has enough enemies among the Happy Killers.
Most of the so-called advancements due to the Islamic culture came from the advanced elements of civilization which the Arabs were in the process of destroying. The Caliphate was the result of a war against the Christian and Zoroastrian cultures by the plundering hordes from the desert looting and killing in the name of Mohammad.
Like criminal gangs with religion as the totalitarian principle of control Islam says "Submit to Conversion, pay Protection or Die" there are no alternatives. And the West appears ready to submit with only a few exceptions most important of which is the GOP and our President.
Re: the ports deal. What really rankles about that is not tha the potential "ownership" would come from the UAE, but that the entire thing was being kept a secret, in as much as that was possible.
We cannot remain a free society when the government keeps that kind of secret, knowingly, because it knows what the public fallout would be. As a straight business deal, I didn't see a problem with it (hard to keep a straight face about "security conerns" when Chinese concerns operate 14 ports on the West Coast); as a pblic relations problem, it's stank to high heaven.
I think more people objected to the secrecy, more than anything else, and of course, there are always thouse who lie in wait to exploit anythingpossible for political advantage.
But,to get back to the original point, is it possible to transplant the roots of Western Civ in the Middle East? I believe the answer is yes, but it won't be easy, nor will it happen quickly. But the first step, and also the hardest, is to change the mindset. In this case, it must be shown that the Western way,while confusing and often threatening to non-Western cultures, does in fact, provide for the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
No one ever really talks about this, but all those American, British, Australian and Canadian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have another mission, unwritten and never spoken of: cultural ambassadors. And as they mix with the Afghans and Iraqis, as they show themselves to be fair, rational people, and as they form freindships and alliances n local communities, the walls of the Foretress of Ignorance will come tumbling down.
Once you do that, the rest (separation of church and state, capitalism, free scientific inquiry, legal protection of personal property, extension of political rights to minorities, etc) is a foregone conclusion.