Monday, September 17, 2012

Arab Spring is now Arab Winter



My heart breaks for the families of the four Americans killed in Libya and the two marines that were killed in Afghanistan.  These Americans travel overseas to bring Democracy and stability to these countries, but the Arab world will never embrace Democracy.
These Middle eastern countries are Theocracies, meaning that their governments are centralized around one religion. In the middle east, the dominant religion is Islam. These governments control the lives of their citizens by dictating strict moral religious code, and oppressing their citizens by using torture or mass murder to remain in power. An example is Syria, which used chemical weapons against 1500 woman and children.   

Despite America's efforts to bring democracy to this region, the middle east will never have a true democratic society because the people do not understand freedom of expression. If an American makes a comment about Islam or Muhammad, the people riot and kill visiting foreigners in their countries because they think that the citizen speaks for their government.  These countries have blasphemy laws regarding the use of the image or derogatory speech against their Prophet Muhammad.

There are Muslims that want a better life for their families in these countries that have had civil wars and oppressive regimes.  The lack of jobs in these countries for large populations of young Muslims has created a disillusioned class of people searching for a purpose in life.  Terrorist organizations come in and fill the spiritual and economic void that these countries do not. 

When Egypt had elections and voted in Morsy, the people had an opportunity at democracy but they chose the Islamist dictator from Muslim brotherhood. 

Coptic Christians were attacked and crimes against secular minorities went unpunished under Morsy. After a year, Morsy dissolved their new Constitution and placed restrictions on woman and minority communities in Egypt.  In July 2013, the people of Egypt went into the streets to protest and remove the dictator. Despite efforts from President Obama to convince Morsy to make reforms to accommodate his people, he refused.  The military gave Morsy 24 hours to reinstall Constitution he refused, than was thrown in jail.

 The people in the Middle eastern countries want to change their present governments. The people will have their version of democracy which clashes with their Theocratic society.

Anti- American sentiment is strong in the Middle east because of our support of Israel and the support of leaders like Mubarek and Morsi in Egypt.  These leaders ruled and oppressed their citizens when in power, and the aid that the U.S. gave the military helped keep dictators in place.  The Muslim world does not support a democracy in their region because Americans are viewed as immoral and materialistic. Theocracy clashes with democracy and capitalism. Many Arabs sympathize with displaced Palestinians.  The Jewish people are seen as occupiers in that region instead of the nation government of Israel. 

America has to take action against ally countries that that do not protect US diplomats and US citizens. These Arab countries should get ahead of a mob situation by immediately having troops around the foreign embassies when they anticipate an anti Muslim video, or blog being televised on Aljazerra.  

These countries should censor anti Muslim content by blocking You tube or Google.  Since the population does not understand the concept of an individuals right to free speech.  These countries don't understand free speech so they think that anyone  that speaks openly represents the US government or have their consent.  Hard line Islamists use these videos to incite the population to violence, since access to technology is limited. Many in the US media claim that the protestors were only a handful and many were  Islamist terrorists.  In the case of Libya, that may be true; but in Tunisia there were about 5000 protestors at the embassy. Those protestors can not all be hard line Islamists, these are citizens that are anti American. 
American government has to be honest with its citizens and tell the truth, they fear unrest and attacks on Muslims in the US. 

Foreign tourists should send strong message to these countries such as Egypt that depend on tourist dollars.
Since foreign travelers will not be safe in any of these countries until another You tube video comes out, they should not invest their businesses nor their vacations in these countries.   Instead of Western countries constantly reaching out to these supposed allies, economic boycotts should be in place until these governments guarantee the safety of Foreign travelers. 

America should remain in the region, to protect our interests and allies in that part of the world, but we have to send a strong unified message with the UN that chemical weapons will not be allowed to be used on  innocent citizens.  The US can not be in every middle eastern conflict the UN has to do its job and not sit back and wait for the US to take action.

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