Word: secularized
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, appointed by the U.S. but voted out in the first democratic election, is offering himself as a secular alternative to Maliki, but his own track record is not exactly inspiring either. During his brief tenure, he showed little capacity for administration and no political vision beyond his own survival. His government was riddled with corruption and ineptitude, and it was during Allawi's reign that militias began to infiltrate Iraqi security forces. He failed even to rally like-minded secular parties, and has spent little time in Iraq since losing the last election, rarely attending...
...coalition's most likely candidate is Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a French-trained economist and political chameleon. Having been, at various points in his career, a communist, a Ba'athist and a secular liberal democrat, he has switched directions so many times it's hard to know which way he's going. These days, Abdul-Mahdi represents the Shi'ite-fundamentalist Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), which, like Maliki's Dawa Party, is beholden to Tehran. Twice in the past two years, Abdul-Mahdi has told journalists he was on the verge of quitting the SIIC to form his own party...
...west has very self-interested reasons for Kazakh democracy. Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic in central Asia, is a major supplier of hydrocarbons. No less vital is predominantly Muslim Kazakhstan's unique potential as a stable, modernized and religiously tolerant secular state in a volatile region threatened by Islamic extremism. For 16 years, Nazarbayev has been using unlimited powers to vigorously pursue liberal economic reforms and achieve economic stability - much at the expense of political freedoms. However, the regime has grown too rigid and politically bottlenecked to ensure long-term stability and further growth. Both Kazakhstan and Western politicians have...
...empire. After World War II, the Indian independence movement was led by Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, and supported by people of all races and creeds. When independence was finally achieved, the new nation's founding fathers were predominantly Hindu. To their great credit, they made India's constitution a secular one. This allowed people of any race or creed, including Muslims, to call India their own and enabled disparate social groups to work together for national peace and prosperity. Handing over power to the Mughals' Muslim descendants would be unthinkable to most Indians today - as unthinkable as living...
...occupy the Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria, even if they are now in disputed Palestinian territory? One senior IDF commander complains to TIME: "It seems like every soldier is consulting his own rabbi." The more extremist rabbis, he says, "want to change the system," bringing Israel's vibrant secular society more in line with their orthodox views...