General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It's really, really hard to talk about radical Islamic terrorism [View all]and, frankly, I think the answer to your question is that if we didn't overthrow Mossadegh, the Middle East might not have exploded at this time or as extensively, but it still would have happened. The Sunni-Shia schism occurred in the 600s, and they have been at odds ever since. Ibn al Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabi sect that the Saudis follow, lived in the 18th century. For decades the Saudis have been spending millions to spread Wahhabi extremism throughout the world. The Koran's laws discriminate against non-Muslims and require violent responses to blasphemy yet moderate Muslims did not develop sects that rejected those practices. The dictatorships of the ME used Islam to maintain power- the reason their nations failed was because the enemies of Islam (Israel, Jews, Christians etc.) were undermining it. Religions that were persecuted by Islam, such as Hindus and Sikhs in India and Buddhists in Myanmar, started pushing back. We created the opening for ISIS with our horrible ME policies, but the conditions were already there and festering.