Prince Hassan on the Middle East

A very interesting conversation with Prince Hassan published on the Time Middle East blog. The Prince talks about the current affairs in which he describes the region as a black hole, and his thoughts on how to avoid yet another future disaster. A very good read.

Some excerpts:

Why a “black hole”?

It has no institutional structure. It has no systemic representation. Anywhere you go in this part of the world, corruption is the first thing that comes to peoples’ minds. What I see is that there was a time when public opinion mattered in this part of the world. Remember, What does the street think? They were hungry, they were deprived, they were marginalized. But they would demonstrate and express their views. Now, public opinion since the Global War on Terrorism, has been contained by the polarity of the confrontation between the state security services and the militants.

Is the Middle East’s problem too much religion?

Separation of church and state is crucial, if you put it in the right terminology. In this region, you need to elevate a moral authority of Jews, Christians and Muslims above politics.

Here's the link to the full article again.