None whatsoever? Is that true? No. Ill go down the list:

1 - India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanstan, and other countires in that region, consider themselves to come from the "Aryan" people (im not talking about Hitlers version)......Let me explain.....Iran: The word "IRAN" comes from the word Aryan. And Iran has ethnice groups called the Persians, the Gilackis, & the Mazandaranis, and many of these people consider themself to come from the Aryan people......Now lets go to India: About 70% of the country in India is believed to have Aryan ancestory. According to the CIA world factbook website (and many other websites) roughly 70% of India is Indo-Aryan. For example, in India there are people called the Punjabi, the Kashmiri, the Haryanvi, the Rajasthani, etc etc. and all these groups are said to have come from the Aryan people. And also in many religous scriptures of India (the Mahabharat, the Ramayan, the Vedas, the Guru Granth Sahib, etc etc.) there are references Aryan heritage.....Now Afghanistan: Afghanistan was once known as the LAND OF THE ARYANS. Afghanistan has people called the Balochis & Pashtuns (among others). And many of these people also believe that their ancestors go all the way back to the Aryan people.....And then there is Paksitan: Pakistan has similar people to that of India because they were once part of India. And their people, just like the people in India, also have Aryan heritage.

For those of you who have no idea what im talking about try to think of it like this. China, Japan, & Korea are different countires right? But they have historical and cultural ties together because they are from the same region & many of us lump them into the "Asian" group.....Another example: Mexico, Puerto Rico, & Cuba are all different countries also right? But they have similar ties culturally & historically, and many people consider them as "Hispanic"....Or how bout Africa? There are many different countires in Africa. But many of us lump them together as just being African because they have similar ties historically or culturally right? Well the same can be said about the region in the middle east & India. Some of them have Aryan ancestory.

2 - Dennis said there are no ties whatsoever historically? Well many Muslim invaders have invaded India throughout the centuries. I mean you can find books on these invasions. For centuries Muslim invaders went to India. The Turks came. The Persians came. The Pashutns came. And the Arabs came. Basically Muslims have invaded India from areas all over the Middle East. Many of these invaders would tear down Hindu & Buddhist temples, steal alot of India's gold & natural resources, rape women, and take back Indian people as slaves. So yes there are ties historically.

3 - Many of these invaders even stayed in India. Not all of them left. Many of them stayed. And these invaders would rule parts of India. This was not a one time thing. NO many of these rulers would rule parts of India for decades. And when a ruler died, a new one would take over. And some of them were cruel. THere were many Muslim rulers who would force others to convert to Islam. There were many Islamic invaders who would tax the hell out of Hindus or discriminate against those who were not Muslim. And in general many Musim rulers werent fair to those who werent Muslim. In general many non Muslims werent treated as good as those who were Muslim. When they werent forcing people to turn to Islam, they were also systematically forcing them to turn to Islam in non violent ways.

In India today there is evidence of historical ties to Muslims in that region. India has many mosks that were bulit by Muslims when they invaded. And some of these Mosks still exist today. India even has some tombs that were made for Muslims. And then of course there is the most famous monument of them all: The Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal was also built by a Muslim Prince. And if you look at the monument itself it is built in a sort of Islamic architecture. Actually there are many other things in India that were built with Islamic architecture. So again Dennis is wrong, they have historical ties.

4 - India has ties culturally when it comes to other Muslim countries. For example the languages. Some of the languges spoken outside of India are spoken inside of India. And some of the languages spoken inside INdia can be found outside of India. And many of the words used in Indian languages (Hindi & Punjabi) can be found in languages such as Persian. And many of these languages in the region stem from Sanskrit which is an ancient Indian language....Then their is the music. Many instruemnts used in India are used outside of India. And vice versa. One form of music in India (called Gazhal) is sang by many Muslims in India. Even Belly dancing (which is considered middle eastern) stems from India....Another example is art. There is art in India that has an Islamic influence. Many historical paintings & architecture has a style to it that is considered Islamic art or architecture. And their is art outside of India that has an Indian influence as well....And last but not least even the food. There are certain foods in India that are liked outside of India & the same can be said vice versa.

5 - There are other ties with India & Islamic countries that id like to tell you about. For example in Afghanistan there were historical Buddhist carvings (which the Taliban wanted to take down). Buddhism is a religion that is from India....Another example....People from the Sikh religion once ruled parts of Afghanistan.....Another example....There were times when Indian kings ruled huge areas outside of India. King Ashok (considered Ashoka the great) ruled parts that are now outside of India. And in general there have been kings in India who ruled parts of Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, & Paksitan. And so its not just outsiders who came to India. No India has also ruled outsiders.

6 - Yes India is not a Muslim country. The majority of people are Hindu. This is true. But did you know that India has the 2nd or 3rd largest Muslim population in the world? And did you know that India elected a Muslim president?

The point im trying to make is that Dennis said India has no cultural or historical ties to Muslim countries. He said NONE WHATSOEVER. Well he was wrong. They have plenty of ties. I just outlined them.

Now when I told him that India had huge historical ties to Muslim countries he brought up two examples to prove me wrong. He asked me if Pashtun (a language spoken in Afghanistan) is spoken in India. And he asked me if the wheel (symbol on the Indian flag) is a Muslim symbol or Hindu symbol....Now first let me tell you the answer. Yes Pashtun is spoken in India but not much. And the symbol on the flag is not Muslim, it is Hindu. And that's what I told him. And he ended the argument.....

Now here is the problem.....Is this the only criteria for proof that there are no ties with India & Muslim countries? I mean why is the Pashtun language & the symbol on the Indian flag the only two examples? Is that all there is when it comes to historical & cultural ties? I mean if Pashtun is not spoken much in India & the symbol on the Indian flag is Hindu, does that mean there is no case to make that India has historical ties to other Muslim countries? No of course not. There are other factors to use as criteria. And I typed some of them above.

So now that I have given a case that India has historical & cultural ties to Muslim countries, I go back to the original question: If Democracy hasnt really spread from India to some of the Muslim countries, then would it spread from Iraq?