From
December of 2010 and through 2011, violence erupted throughout the middle east
and northern Africa and rulers have been forced from power. We called it "Arab Spring". We thought we were seeing spring season's
finally coming to the desert of the middle east after centuries of "cold
winter" and sprout of "freedom" growing like flower garden.
And yet,
in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen… and now, Syria, "Arab Spring" is
falling apart. "Spring" is
turning to "mayhem".
"Spring season" is now a "bloodshed season". We are learning a hard lesson from Arab
Spring. We have learned it with
blood - blood of soldiers and people of
those countries.
Let us
look at Egypt. We, the West, let
Egyptian riots oust Hosni Mubarak. Who
was Hosni Mubarak? What did he do?
- He
maintained peace with Israel (if not warm in nature) and the West
- He was secular and not
Islamist
- He kept
Islamic fundamentalist movement in check
- He secured
Christian's freedom of religion
- He was
pro-America (if not overtly pro-Israel)
- He was the
strongman
After
Mubarak was dragged from power, Mohamed Morsi came to power. Who is he and what is he doing?
- Morsi
trashes peace treaty with Israel, overtly violating it by allowing
terrorists to infiltrate Sinai
- Morsi is the Islamist and
enforcer of Sharia (Islamic Law)
- Morsi is one of the leaders
of Muslim Brotherhood, the fundamentalist group
- Morsi is allowing mobs'
savaging Copt Christian minority
- Morsi hates Israel, US and
the West
- Morsi is
now the strongman of the Egypt
People of
Egypt used "democratic system" to choose Mohamed Morsi. We in the West demanded military
establishment of Egypt to honor the result of the "democratic"
election and to hand the power over to Morsi.
All was done "democratically".
It was people's wish. Is there
anything wrong about it, even if it threatens our friend Israel, the only
country in the middle east with civil liberty and flourishing economy?
One after
the other, countries have come through "democratic" processes and
ended up handing over powers to Islamist, fundamentalist and Jihadist. With no exception, the first ones to suffer
are religious and ethnic minorities and women.
Next one to suffer is the rest of the citizens.
In Syria…
Bashir Assad's regime is under attack by mobs that are heavily infiltrated by
Muslim Brotherhoods. Bashir Assad was no
friend of Israel and the West. But, let
us not forget, under his and his father's secular rule, that Christian
community enjoyed a relative security and freedom of worship and that women
enjoyed freedom to live in secular fashion.
Bashir Assad may have done a lot
of thuggish things, but he is not Jihadist.
Jihad is
a duty of Muslim, and Shariah is the law of Islam.
Here
is a glimpse of what Shariah is.
"Reliance of the Traveller", a classic
manual of Islamic law of Shariah dictates;
- Apostasy from Islam is punishable by death (o 8.0 & ff)
- Jihad means to war against non-Muslims (o 9.0)
- Offenses committed against
Muslims are more serious than offenses committed
against non-Muslims (o 1.0 & ff; p2.0-1)
- The penalty for fornification
is to be stoned to death (0 12.0 & ff)
- The penalty for homosexual
activity is death (p17.0 & ff)
- A Muslim woman may only marry a Muslim man
- A woman is required to be obedient to her husband and is prohibited from leaving
the marital home without permission (p42.0 & ff)
- The penalty of accepting
interest is death (p7.0 & ff)
- Musical instrument of all
types are unlawful. Singing is generally prohibited (r 40.0 & ff)
- The testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man (o24.9)
Islam
doesn't tell us to be nice, respectful and tolerant to each other. Islam just demands everybody - believers and
non-believers - submits to Allah. This
means everybody must follow teachings of Quran.
This means everybody must abide by the law of Islam, Shariah.
In short,
Islam does not allow a person to have compassion, conscience and
tolerance. In short, Islam is an
oppressive system to lock people in jail, mentally or physically. In short, society governed by Islam is
inhumane. In short, Islam is worse than
dictatorship.
We in the
west may feel we are free, freer than ever before and will be even more
free. In fact, we have these people in
millions who choose to submit themselves to oppression, spread the oppression
and punish those who dare to criticize it and refuse to accept it. As we disguise ourselves of being
"free", Jihadist Islam is spreading throughout the middle east and it
is reaching further and further into Asia, Europe and US. And, they are threatening our civil societies
while liberal left tries to accommodate them.
Mubarak
was a dictator. We hated
dictatorship. We thought dictatorship
was unconditionally a bad thing. We
thought democracy was unconditionally a good thing. We were wrong. What we now know, and if not, must know is
that Hosni Mubarak was "the ideal" leader for Egypt and is the
"model ruler" for that region of the world - Arab-Muslim Middle East.
Democracy
won't work by itself. It works when it
is installed upon the civil society.
Civil society where people respect each other comes first. Civil society where people respect the norm
and culture of the society comes first.
Civil society where people are allowed to act on their sense of duty,
conscience and compassion comes first.
Only these society "can" have working democracy. Countries in the middle east with exception
of Israel don't have that society.
Therefore, these countries are not compatible with democracy, never has
been and perhaps never will be.
Foreign
policy is about protecting national interest by navigating the country through
conflicting interests of many other countries.
This requires getting priorities straight. Our number one priority should be national
security. What we need for our national
security is stability and less hostility - especially in volatile region like
middle east. What we don't want is
turmoil and hostility. What we need to
secure stability in the middle east is "friendly" strongmen who have
capability to govern the "uncivil" societies.
Therefore,
the hard lesson we learned from Arab Spring is this;
Dictatorship
in that region is not at all a bad thing.
Instead, it is a good thing. We
support friendly dictators while urging unfriendly dictators to come to our
side. If the rulers get openly hostile
to us and wage subversive activities against us, as in the case of Saddam
Hussein, we replace them; First, we locate "another"
"friendly" strongman who is "secular minded" and "can
govern" the country with "iron fist". Second, we go in there and crush the enemy to
the smithereens. Third, we impose
military curfew and secure stability.
Fourth, we hand over the power to the strongman. Fifth, we get the "hell out" damn
quick.
Note1:
The
mistake in Iraq and Afghanistan was we thought we can install democracy in
those countries. Maybe we would have to
go in there once again sometimes in the future.
And, for this time around we won't make the same mistake again.
Note 2:
This is
how Islam affects the minds of people here in Asia. Jihadist Muslims in Indonesia slaughters
Ahamadiyya minority. Caution! This
video shows people getting killed in front of the camera.
Note 3:
Islam is
coming to Japan.