Arab "Spring" some 18 months later..

[fazers_on_stun]

From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49137087/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/?ocid=msnhp

NYT: Egypt’s Morsi says US must repair Arab relations

On the eve of a visit to Washington, the Islamist President says the US must respect Arab world values

On the eve of his first trip to the United States as Egypt’s new Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi said the United States needed to fundamentally change its approach to the Arab world, showing greater respect for its values and helping build a Palestinian state, if it hoped to overcome decades of pent-up anger.

A former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mr. Morsi sought in a 90-minute interview with The New York Times to introduce himself to the American public and to revise the terms of relations between his country and the United States after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, an autocratic but reliable ally.

He said it was up to Washington to repair relations with the Arab world and to revitalize the alliance with Egypt, long a cornerstone of regional stability.... He said the United States must respect the Arab world’s history and culture, even when that conflicts with Western values.

IOW, we are supposed to forget our fundamental principles such as freedom of speech, etc and suppress any negative comments or depictions of Muhammad so as to not anger the Islamic states..

I'd guess the next step, assuming the US is anxious to please these fundamentalists, would be to dump our legal system and go to Sharia law? Even then I doubt any fundamentalists would like us..

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Leaders like this always needs a bad guy to keep the people stirred up, put blame on and say its their fault because they arent doing enough.
Sound familiar?

 

[wanamingo]

I think we can all agree democracy is a better for of government than dictatorship, right?

This isnt going to be easy its going to be a long and dirty process but a true democratic middle east is a stable one.

 

[wanamingo]

Yes, a giant, sweeping, Islamic Caliphate throughout the Middle East and Africa. That's exactly what the world needs. That's sure to stablilize things.

But I refuse to say that a dictatorship would be better. I mean look at America's history, the civil war was the bloodiest war the USA ever participated in. Democracy isnt just magic, you cant just wave your hands and proclaim "Democracy!" its going to be very hard work and it will take a long time but it is necessary.

 

[chunkymonster]

The U.S. needs to respect Arab world values...oh please!

The Arab world and Muslim community is facing an identity crisis. Most of the middle east has been living under dictatorship and the People themselves have lost any understanding of self government. There is seemingly little cohesion outside of a hatred for Israel and the Western World and their love of Muhammad and Sharia law. There is a minority segment of the Arab world that realizes that the move to a more secular Muslim community is necessary to advance beyond tribal and theocratic mentalities, but any transition will be a long and hard fight against Islamic zealotry.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been making a concerted effort to take advantage of the chaos left by the Arab Spring to have the organization become the major political party. The Brotherhood believes in using existing Islamic religious organizations to spread their ideology, they use communist style subversion by working with different social groups especially lower class and working professionals, they use a multi-level organizational structure with both legitimate and illegal groups operating independently to recruit and promote their goals.

There is a reason to be concerned about the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is becoming the major political party in each instance where countries experienced an "Arab Spring". The slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood epitomizes their ideology and goals, "God is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Qur'an our constitution, Jihad our way and dying for God's cause our supreme objective."

 

[wanamingo]

So.... democracy = good but only if we like who is in power.

Democracy = bad when we had influence over the dictator?

I think of this like free speech, as long as democracy is functioning properly there is no such thing as a bad candidate.

 

[chunkymonster]

So.... democracy = good but only if we like who is in power.

Democracy = bad when we had influence over the dictator?

I think of this like free speech, as long as democracy is functioning properly there is no such thing as a bad candidate.

Democracy has just become another euphemism for regime change.

American will maintain some level of influence as long as they keep buying and selling their oil using American Dollars.

 

[wanamingo]

Hilter was democratically elected. Was that good?

Would we still have had WWII if Hitler had not come to power? Probably, or something very similar to it. I dont think its too far to also say that democracy didnt function properly to get the big H into office. Did the world learn something from WWII? I hope so.

Im sure someone could provide a better answer....

If it came down to elected leaders Vs. Dictators, historically the elected leaders have done much more for their people.