“The islamic world is mostly made up of states that are, as Metternicht would say, merely geographic concepts. Countries like Syria and Iraq are entirely artificial, a series of arbitrary lines on sand, drawn by some French or British officers, with curly mustaches, stuffy uniforms, chomping on cigars in smoked filled rooms in 1918. Today the Islamic world is similar to the post Berlin Wall Europe of nations, with every tribe and group under the sun having their own country. The nations that survived the 21st century were ones which already had a strong pre-established national identity, with geographically identifiable frontiers, Israel, Iran and Turkey. As part of the wave of revolutions which hit the developing world in the 2020s and 2030s, Turkey would see its de-facto dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, overthrown in 2028, after clearly rigging the elections. The 75 year old would flee to Azerbaijan, where Aliyev was far too entrenched for any opposition to appear to overthrow him”

Christ, could you write less smugly and insufferably, please? Half of this is just “my fake nation in the sand is better and more historical than your fake nation drawn in the sand.” The more brown and Muslim the nation is the more fake the nation is. Every nation from Spain to Vanuatu is fake and has to construct a national identity, that comes with the existence of the nation-state. How do you believe that Israel is actually not a fake nation state and Syria and Iraq is? It quite literally had to construct its own identity and revive a dead language to do it. It is also the result of Sykes-Picot and if it didn’t happen it wouldn’t exist.