Pablo's Blog: Dictators going down in the Muslim world

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Dictators going down in the Muslim world

It's been a week since the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak resigned from power. Mubarak was in power for 3 decades.

The street protests that occurred in the last few months got tons of publicity in the US!

However, what inspired the protests in Egypt were the protests in a lesser known North African nation of Tunisia.

While Tunisia has been known as one of the more stable African nations when it came to economics and violence, things were starting to boil at the end of last year. Inflation and unemployment was rising! Wikileaks exposed the high level of corruption within Tunisia's government. People just weren't going take being under the rule of a dictatorship anymore.

Some Tunisians burned themselves in protests. More come out to the streets to protest and riot. Things got so hectic, that the Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali left the country on 1/14/2011!

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Now the Egyptians were thinking "if they could get rid of their dictator in Tunisia, why can't we?" The Egyptians also faced the same problems with economics and the lack of civil liberties, just like the Tunisians.

So the Egyptians had their own street protests! While the majority of the protesters were against the dictator Hosni Mubarak, some of Mubarak's supporters came out, and there were tons of street fights. They not only attacked anti-Mubarak protesters, they even attacked foreign reporters who they feel were unfairly biased!

Some of Mubarak's supporters even rode on camels & horses and whipped any anti-Mubarak protester around. Even in 2011, camels & horses were being used in battle? Just watching that reminded me of those war movies that took place thousands of years ago!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgjU-uH_KYk&feature=rec-LGOUT-exp_fresh+div-1r-1-HM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCdj9ZxUi-Q&feature=related

But the anti-Mubarak protesters weren't going to be deterred. They were willing to risk their lives. They were willing to risk getting hit with punches, batons, whips and even camels. After all, if the Tunisians could get of their dictator, why can't the Egyptians?

On February 11, 2011, Hosni Mubarak figured that it's best for him to get out of there! He resigned. This was a cause for celebration for many in Egypt! There were loud street parties. Just watching it was exciting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ-gz9fkirw&feature=fvsr

Now, the protests are spreading to other Muslims countries run by dictators. The anti-dictator protests have been occurring in Algeria, Lybia, Jordan, Iran and Bahrain! They all are inspired by the Tunisians and Egyptians!

2) Reactions from the US

There have been mixed reactions from many in the US about the Egyptian situation.

Being that the USA is a proud democracy born of revolution, many here sympathize with the anti-Mubarak protesters!

However, Mubarak was in power because the US government gave Mubarak's government about $2 billion a year. This was basically a bribe to Egyptian government to be nice to Israel. Egypt's previous dictator Anwar Sadat signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979. Sadat was later assassinated and Mubarak was next in line! Because Mubarak was willing to honor Sadat's peace treaty, the US was willing to give his government tons of money!

While many in the US were happy to see Mubarak not using his military to threaten Israel, they looked the other way as Mubarak used US-funded weapons against his political opponents. Those who protested against Mubarak were usually tortured by government agents. And US taxpayers paid for that!

So many in the US were thinking "US was for spreading democracy to Iraq & Iran, but was funding the Egyptian government that were torturing pro-democracy folks ?"

This put Obama's administration in a bind. Obama's reputation worldwide was one of a "the hero of the oppressed" but his administration continued the tradition of funding Mubarak's government. This contradiction pushed Obama's administration to urge Mubarak to allow for democratic elections. That was a sign to Mubarak that the US was no longer willing to look the other way as his government violated many civil liberties. That was a sign that Mubarak's time was up!

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However, many people in the US are still skeptical about whether things will improve in Egypt. This is because the US has been traumatized by the 1979 situation in Iran! Back then, there was a protest against Iranian dictator Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (usually referred to as "the shah"). The shah fled Iran in 1979, and a group of Islamic Fascists took over the country.

Because the shah fled to the US, the Islamic fascists, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the US embassy in Tehran and held hostages. Jimmy Carter, who was the US President at the time, launched a failed attempt to rescue the hostages. That failed attempt was seen as a sign of Carter's weakness. Carter was already in political trouble for the declining economy, and now this. This doomed Carter's presidency, and Carter was replaced by Ronald Reagan, whose image was a mixture of optimism and strength.

Meanwhile, the Islamic fascist who took over Iran were more brutal than the shah ever was. Civil liberties, already rare under the shah, was even more severely restricted after Khomeini took over. Khomeini publicly considered the US as the "Great Satan", and encouraged terrorism against the US!

While Khomeini died in 1989, his followers still run Iran. One of them is Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, who has supported the anti-US militants in Iraq, gave weapons to Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, stated his desire to "wipe Israel off the map", and has even freaked out some neighboring Arab nations who are worried about Iran developing nuclear weapons.

So what this gotta do with Egypt? The most organized opposition group in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood, which is an ultra-conservative, anti-Israel, anti-US organization. Some of their members have ties to Islamic terrorist organizations.

While the Muslim Brotherhood has an estimated support of only 20% of Egypt's population, they are way more organized than the more moderate, secular organizations existing in Egypt. This is what got many worried. This is what got some worried that Egypt might soon experience what happened in Iran in 1979!

Some people also point out the fact that the Islamic terrorist organization, Hamas getting democratically elected to run Gaza back in 2006!

While many want to focus on what happened in Iran in 1979 or Gaza in 2006, let's remember that Pakistan took a different direction in 2008. Pakistan was run by Pervez Musharraf, a dictator who was supported by the US government, basically as a bribe to help the US against the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the Pakistani people eventually got tired of the lack of civil liberties under Musharraf. Massive protests occurred. People worried that having a democratic election in Pakistan would lead to Islamic fascists winning elections. THAT DID NOT HAPPEN! Musharraf resigned and Asif Ali Zardari, a moderate Muslim, was elected president!

However, based on the reports from this year's Egypt's protest, most of the protesters aren't expressing the rhetoric of the Muslim Brotherhood. They weren't the type to support the Hamas, Khomeini or Ahmadenijad. While many are devout Muslims, their rhetoric is more about freedom than jihad.

I'm sure when elections occur in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would get some votes and some members in the legislative branch. That's something the people of Egypt will have to work out on their own.

Remember, while the USA is seen as the land of the free, it didn't start out that way. Slavery was still allowed when the Constitution was signed. It was more than a century afterwards when women and racial minorities had the right to vote! Progress takes time!

What happens next in North Africa or the Middle East will be up to their people. The US is pretty much done invading countries to liberate them. The people are pretty much liberating themselves these days.

Egypt is mostly Muslim, and therefore, people would likely not vote for the nation to be as liberal as Europe or North America. It's not likely the nation would become as lenient on drugs, gambling or sex like Amsterdam or Las Vegas. What direction they want their country to go will have to come from within.

3) Lara Logan situation

Lara Logan, a CBS reporter, was in Egypt to cover the protests. While there, she was sexually assaulted by people in the crowd.

People have made really stupid statements about that situation.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/15/lara_logan_rape_reaction/index.html

When the news broke, Nir Rosen, a fellow at the New York University Center for Law and Security, promptly whined to Twitter, "It’s always wrong, that’s obvious, but I’m rolling my eyes at all the attention she’ll get," adding, "She’s so bad that I ran out of sympathy for her." He soon backpedaled, deleting several of his most offensive posts and tweeting, "I apologize and take it back. joking with friends got out of line when i didnt want to back down. forgot twitter is not exactly private." Apparently he still hasn't remembered that sexual assault isn't great joking around material.

"Forgot twitter is not exactly private"? DUH! Anything you say or write can & will be used against you! Especially in this era of twitter, facebook, blogs and YouTube! It's bad enough middle schoolers don't understand that, it's even worse when adults (especially those working at universities, like Rosen) don't understand that!

Rosen ended up resigning from his job. He later made a lame apology, which was too little, too late!

Now on to another stupid statement on Logan's situation.

And the ever-heinous Debbie Schlussel was quick to jump on her regular line of racism, noting how the assault happened in a "country of savages," because that never ever happens anywhere else, and it's never committed by light-skinned people! She then twisted the knife by going after Logan herself, saying, "So sad, too bad, Lara. No one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she knows... How fitting that Lara Logan was 'liberated' by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the 'liberation.'" Debbie Schlussel, what's it like to be so liberated from the burden of having either a mind or a soul?

Does Schlussel remember Woodstock 1999? Women were sexually assaulted at this rock festival in a rural section of New York. And no, Islam has NOTHING to do with it. Most of the concert audience were European-Americans. This incident, like the MAJORITY OF RAPES IN THE US, are white-on-white rapes. That's right, women like Schlussel are WAY MORE LIKELY to be raped by someone like Ben Roethlisberger than some North African Muslim dude. And let's not forget, about 1/6 of women in the US will get raped in her lifetime!

The Lara Logan incident has WAY MORE to do with young adult males acting stupid in a crowd than with Islam.

Yes, many Islamic nations have problems with sexual abuse. So do nations in Europe and North America. As I mentioned earlier, 1/6 of US women get raped in their lifetime. It includes women in your family, your school, your workplace. What, they didn't tell you? HELLO, most of us don't talk about traumatic experiences with 98% of the people we know!

Now, to the smartest statement about Logan's situation, from that same link. http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/15/lara_logan_rape_reaction/index.html

Here’s what you do say when something like this happens. Like countless women around the world, Lara Logan was attacked in the line of duty. She was assaulted doing her job. It was a crime of unspeakable violence. And your opinion of how she does that job, the religion her assailants share with a few million other people, or the color of her hair has nothing to do with it.

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4) Other interesting articles on the Egypt situation

http://reason.com/archives/2011/02/16/democracy-isnt-enough "democracy isn't enough" by david Harsanyi

http://reason.com/archives/2011/02/16/got-to-be-free "Got to Be Free: Did Bush's foreign policy set the stage for Middle Eastern democracy?" by Jacob Sullum

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/elder020311.php3 " Egypt: Obama channels his inner Neocon"

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/jonah020211.php3 "Hope Amid the Chaos in Cairo" by Jonah Goldberg

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/opinion/01brooks.html?_r=1 "the Quest for Dignity" by David Brooks