Interviewee: And, and I would even throw in Indonesia into that, into that mix, yeah. Now part of course the complexities that Southeast Asia is dealing with that Turkey isn’t dealing with is that as diverse and as eclectic as Turkey is, it pales in comparison to the enormous diversity of Malaysia and Indonesia and so this concept that I’ve been referring to about, you know, reflecting the morality that the social customs and norms of the majority population that Turkey is attempting to do by taking away some of the secularist restrictions on the public display of religion, which I know freaks a lot of Turks out, but it’s okay. It’s okay to put a piece of cloth over your head and still get a college degree. It’s not going to change the world; it’s not going to turn you into Iran. Those kinds of issues are, you know, are not the same issues that Malaysia and Indonesia are dealing with. Indeed I think what’s really remarkable about the South Asian form of Islamic democracy, which is just as vibrant, is that it’s a ground up democracy; it’s focused so much on precisely the socioeconomic development that we were talking about earlier. Why is Indonesia so successful despite all the odds against it over this last decade in really fashioning a distinctly Indonesian conception of democracy in one that is very much founded upon an Indonesian, sort of, moral ideals of Islam and the world of Islam in society, it’s because the economy is doing so much better. It’s because the social circumstances of Indonesians has been improving gradually which has taken away some of those ethnic divisions that were so much a part of, you know, two decades ago you know, the civil strife and the conflicts in that region; primarily I’m talking about the difference between the Chinese minority of course and, you know, the majority populations there, which again goes to the earlier point that we were making here about how important socioeconomic development is. I am personally really satisfied that at this Entrepreneurship Summit that I was talking about, there is a very large representation from both Indonesia and Malaysia, you know, because that now is, I was sort of jokingly saying, the Muslim world as if anything exist called the Muslim world. Well, if there is such a thing as the Muslim world it’s in South Asia. It’s in Southeast Asia. It’s not in the Middle East anymore and it’s certainly not the Arab world anymore. So this is really I think the economic prowess that the South Asian and Southeast Asian countries are beginning to show; this, sort of, the prowess for self-sustaining economic development and the political experimentation that we’re seeing in places like Turkey and even in Iran, I think, are real harbingers for where Islam is going to be moving in this next century.
Person: If left alone.
Interviewee: If left alone as someone says, yes that’s right.
Interviewer 1: I’m so sorry were out of time. I know there are so many more of you who have questions but please join me in thanking Dr. Aslan. It’s been…I’ve enjoyed it so much. Thank you.