1545- Need for a stable center:

(Thanks Ben Gilberti)
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We wonder why Muslim countries like Iraq and Syria and Egypt can't be democratic societies like us (the USA), but we fail to understand the need humans have for a stable center. Just look at the Hajj in Mecca. This is a metaphor for a stable center around which the people find meaning, order, and a place in their society. We all have this need.

What the Islamic mind fears about western democracy is that it has no Center. A secular society like ours make the individual ego its center so everything revolves around this consuming center. Our whole economy circles around this Ego Center like the pilgrims circle around the Hajj. America especially, with our worship of freedom makes the Ego Center our God. We are a people of ego centers...
-Ed Conley
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