The recent disturbances in a number of Middle East countries
including but not limited to Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain,
Libya, etc…. are separately explained by many conservatives and liberals
as evidence of a sudden Muslim thirst for democracy — driven by
poverty, political suppression, and cultural deprivation.
Well, maybe. But I suspect that such interpretations trivialize the magnitude and causes of these events. After all, those sadly familiar factors of poverty, political suppression, and cultural deprivation have existed in most Muslim lands for many centuries.
So what really triggered this “democracy tsunami” ? Is it - as many socio-economic pundits claim - the advent of social networking such as Facebook, Twitter and the likes? Is it a true awakening of the youth in the Arab world at large about the miserable and untenable state of affairs in their respective countries? or what exactly?
I personally believe that the main reason behind this “perfect storm” is the convergence today - after the huge US economic debacle of 2008 - of immense oil interests in partnership with the region's jihadist regimes, obstructing the advance of democracy in the region and pushing the envelope to the limit...first to change the regional balance of power followed by the world's. .....(more)
Well, maybe. But I suspect that such interpretations trivialize the magnitude and causes of these events. After all, those sadly familiar factors of poverty, political suppression, and cultural deprivation have existed in most Muslim lands for many centuries.
So what really triggered this “democracy tsunami” ? Is it - as many socio-economic pundits claim - the advent of social networking such as Facebook, Twitter and the likes? Is it a true awakening of the youth in the Arab world at large about the miserable and untenable state of affairs in their respective countries? or what exactly?
I personally believe that the main reason behind this “perfect storm” is the convergence today - after the huge US economic debacle of 2008 - of immense oil interests in partnership with the region's jihadist regimes, obstructing the advance of democracy in the region and pushing the envelope to the limit...first to change the regional balance of power followed by the world's. .....(more)
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