The failed Muslim states to come

[MugenOne]

****Like I had argued in the past here, if the Middle East got hit with an economic turmoil, the world will likely see an increase in Muslim terrorism. Even the enchanted kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeks stability through petrodollar. Once the money starts to run low, there will be chaotic in the street. There are many idled young men in those countries who are willing to take arms or be indoctrinated into Islam. So much for the religion of peace. It’s only peaceful because of money. ****

The failed Muslim states to come
By Spengler

																Financial crises, like epidemics, kill the unhealthy first. The present crisis  																	is painful for most of the world but deadly for many Muslim countries, and  																	especially so for the most populous ones. Policy makers have not begun to  																	assess the damage. 																	
																
																The diplomatic strategy of the industrial nations now resembles a James Clavell  																	potboiler, in which an earthquake interrupts a hopelessly immured plot.  																	Moderate Islam was the El Dorado of the diplomatic consensus. It might have  																	been the case that Pakistan could be tethered to Western interests, or that  																	Iran could be engaged peacefully, or that Turkey would incubate a moderate form  																	of Islam. I considered all of this delusional, but the truth is that we shall never know. The financial crisis will sort them out  																	first.

As I commented in the late autumn, the world is not flat, but flattened (see Asia Times Online, October 28, 2008), leaving the economies of the largest Muslim countries in ruins. It is hard to forecast the political fallout, for when each available choice leads to a failed state, it is a matter of indifference which one you adopt. As state finances crumble, states will become less important, and freebooters will seize the stage. Think of the Mumbai terrorists as a political cognate of the Somali pirates, and the character of a Middle East made up of failed states comes into focus.

atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JL16Ak02.html