24/09/2012

Arab Spring Has A Lot To Do With The Violence Over The Anti-Islam Film

More Muslim protests and more deaths
More Muslim protests and more deaths
Samuel Marshall writes from Washington: More Muslim protests and more deaths, this time in Peshawar. 
Personally, I blame the Arab Spring for this wave of extremist violence. Because if you look closer at all those supposed ‘democratic revolutions’ in the Middle East and North Africa you would realise that the Islamists came out of them as the biggest winners. Samuel Marshall.
And that obviously strengthened their resolve and determination to gain even more ground. And lo and behold, a silly film came up on YouTube and it was a good pretext for the hardliners to beat the war drum and summon the faithful to hit the streets. (Via Stirring Trouble Internationally dot com).
The current crisis is a spin off from the Arab Spring. And there will be more of these unfortunate developments, as Muslim fundamentalists would be trying to use the momentum to achieve more victories. Western diplomacy has failed spectacularly to figure out who was behind the upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa. Sure, it suited some vested interests to dispose of Colonel Gaddafi under the guise of the triumph of people’s power in Libya, but when it came to Egypt and Tunis and Yemen the winners were the people that the West should have kept as far from political power as possible. Syria is another case when the West has got practically everything wrong and will pay a high price in the end.
Some people insist that the violent reaction to the anti-Islam films proves there is a wide cultural divide between the West and the Muslim world. And they are right, of course, only the sad thing is that the West does not really come across as all that superior in this case, with its aggressive atheism that seems to be determined to destroy major religions. No one says that violence is a great thing but blasphemy that is elevated to government policy has nothing to do with progress as well. In fact, it is regress.
Jackie Mason
Jackie Mason
Another reason why the Muslim world is up in arms against the US and other Western countries is the failure of the Obama Administration to develop a coherent strategy in the Middle East and attempt to start solving the Israeli Palestinian conflict. In fact, compared to the previous US governments the current one has demonstrated total reluctance to tackle the problems that exist in the Middle East. And once Islamists sensed this weakness, they moved in to fill the vacuums, cunningly using the movements for change in their favour. (The now know that the West is a sucker for all those flowery speeches about democracy and freedom and human rights, terms that have been used in the past to commit the most horrible crimes.)
Still, the hope is that maybe some comedians will be drafted to negotiate a truce. How about Jackie Mason?
Via Stirring Trouble Internationally - A humorous take on news and current affairs. This article is a partial extract of the main article >> read more.
Haldane leaving gymnasium, West Point (LOC)
Haldane leaving gymnasium, West Point (LOC) (Photo credit: The Library of Congress)