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Originally Posted by abaya
Demographer checking in for the sake of numbers... interestingly, I looked briefly on Wikipedia for the global distribution of Muslims by country, and the total number of Muslims living in the "Middle East" (including Afghanistan in the ME, even though it's actually in Central Asia) and Africa is a bit less than or equal to the total number of Muslims living in Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh alone.
Indonesia, in fact, has a higher absolute number of Muslims living there than any other country in the world. So, out of curiosity, do you also see them as a nation full of strife, at the same level as the countries in the Middle East? |
Interesting thing about demographics in countries such as Afghanistan (or Pakistan or many of the "stans" or Somalia) is that demographics that I've seen don't take into account the large number of the populace that simply doesn't show up. Being in that field yourself, I wonder how accurate you think current CIA data is on the population of Afghanistan... say on the CIA World Factbook. What is the margin of error in a country where most people don't know how many people are in the next village over? I wonder if it takes into account the people in villages that I've visited where people had never seen someone that was not Pashtun until our unit arrived there last Spring. How accurate can demographics really be? Obviously I don't know better than the numbers, but I can say firsthand that there are more than a few reason for those numbers to be flawed. Much of western Pakistan is exactly the same, and Pakistan is a fairly modern country for this region (akin to India). in fact there is a large area of land in the mountains that sits on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan that both and neither actually claim as their own. The people who live there would also staunchly disagree that they are part of either country. The locals call is Waziristan (sp?) for the Waziri tribe that inhabits the area. Think Afghan Gypsies.
I see your point, but I also think there are gross inaccuracies with such statistics in less developed areas of the world.
To more acutely answer your questions...
As for the countries you mention, I generally don't. However, in most of the more eastern asian countries (central and east of central) the Muslims often do not follow Sharia Law and women have rights in accordance with most modern human rights agreements. Genocide happens less frequently, more akin to westenr cultures, and people are mostly treated fairly. There are small, short-term exceptions, but the variance from western cultures is not great.
As my last post mentioned, I conceded that it wasn't likely Islam itself, but many of the cultures that embrace Islam.