What does the Libyan revolution look like in 2013? The streets of Tripoli and Benghazi are full of militia checkpoints manned by some of the 225,000 registered militiamen whose loyalty is to their commanders rather than the state. On Nov. 15, the militia men opened Kalashnikovs to anti-aircraft guns on demonstrators in Tripoli who were demanding that they go home. They killed 43 protestors and wounded 400 others. Earlier the intern government's Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, was kidnapped by militia gunmen. Militias have closed the oil ports, exports and eastern Libya. The Libyan state has collapsed.
The revolutions have so far produced anarchy in Libya, a civil war in Syria, a greater autocracy in Bahrain and resumed dictatorial rule in Egypt.
In Syria, the uprising began in 2011 with demonstrations against the brutality of Assad's regime. After 3 years of chants, protests and civil war, there is no fair candidate to replace Assad. In 2003, the majority of Iraqis wanted to see the end of Saddam's rule vis-à-vis US invasion. But the government replaced by the US in Baghdad is even more sectarian, corrupt and dysfunctional. More state violence ensues. Iraqi prisons are full of people who have made false confessions under torture or the threat of it. Abu Ghraib is the world's most tortuous and murderous prison only after Bagram - a symbol of post-Taliban Afghanistan.
The revolutions have so far produced anarchy in Libya, a civil war in Syria, a greater autocracy in Bahrain and resumed dictatorial rule in Egypt.
In Syria, the uprising began in 2011 with demonstrations against the brutality of Assad's regime. After 3 years of chants, protests and civil war, there is no fair candidate to replace Assad. In 2003, the majority of Iraqis wanted to see the end of Saddam's rule vis-à-vis US invasion. But the government replaced by the US in Baghdad is even more sectarian, corrupt and dysfunctional. More state violence ensues. Iraqi prisons are full of people who have made false confessions under torture or the threat of it. Abu Ghraib is the world's most tortuous and murderous prison only after Bagram - a symbol of post-Taliban Afghanistan.
Why have revolutions in the Arab world failed so absolutely, and why have they increased in faults and crimes? The humanitarian principles expressed at the beginning of revolutions contrast the bloodbath at the end. The mass uprising has come to an end with rapid degradation of human life and public infrastructure.
The depressing frequency of failure of the uprisings does not come as a surprise. Revolutions come into being because of unpredictable forces with different motives targeting the governments. The political, social and economic ramifications of the upsurges in the Middle East were masked by English-speaking bloggers and tweeters as unthreatening velvet revolutions similar to anti-organized religion and pro-democracy uprisings in Eastern Europe. It is a simple-minded delusion that problems: personal freedoms, social and economic inequality would vanish once democracies have replaced the old police states. This propaganda sells in Western media but in reality, it does nothing in terms of engineering anything close to a peaceful transition from the old to new regime. The populations remain sectarian, ethnically and tribally divided - tearing each other apart in new civil wars everyday.
Even when NATO (really the US) intervened in the name of globalisation and humanitarianism like Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011, the intervention was very similar to imperial takeover in 19th century. The US talked about 'nation-building' to be carried out but it was clear that they had their own interests in mind just as Britain did when Lloyd George orchestrated the carve-up of the Ottoman Empire. Arab nation states were charted in the early 1960s to create national independence for the various Arab groups. But the leaders of the Arab states, brought to power and armed by UK and the US at the time are now dubbed as ruthless dictators using nationalism to justifying their hold to power. However, the US has always viewed Arab nationalism as a mask for racism and militarism against its freedom and the existence o Israel. The Arabs themselves lack an ideology that would enable them compete as a focus of loyalty with religious sects and ethnic groups. The rebels and reforms in the Arab world have taken the lives of millions and raised their respective countries to debris without resolving anything except creating more dilemmas.
I believe the status quo in the Middle East should change but I will never support the destruction of the Middle East by Arabs. I will never support the invitation to the Crusaders to come back to the Middle East. I will never support the army or airforce of the US, Canada or UK bombing majority Muslim populated lands, the beautiful citadel of Islam. Once the Arabs resisted colonialism and today we are supporting it. What kind of Arab revolution would require the presidents of US, UK, France to bomb the countries which the companions of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) conquered to establish Islam. What kind of Arab revolution is this? So a principle for me is that the Arabs must liberate themselves. If the imperial powers come to liberate us, they will make an Abu Ghraib and Bagram in every single country full of Muslims and exchange a small tyrant for a bigger tyrant.
How should the Arab liberate themselves? Islamic literature, history and culture - offers an integrated and comprehensive solution to bad governments and civil wars. Stay tuned inshaAllah...
The depressing frequency of failure of the uprisings does not come as a surprise. Revolutions come into being because of unpredictable forces with different motives targeting the governments. The political, social and economic ramifications of the upsurges in the Middle East were masked by English-speaking bloggers and tweeters as unthreatening velvet revolutions similar to anti-organized religion and pro-democracy uprisings in Eastern Europe. It is a simple-minded delusion that problems: personal freedoms, social and economic inequality would vanish once democracies have replaced the old police states. This propaganda sells in Western media but in reality, it does nothing in terms of engineering anything close to a peaceful transition from the old to new regime. The populations remain sectarian, ethnically and tribally divided - tearing each other apart in new civil wars everyday.
Even when NATO (really the US) intervened in the name of globalisation and humanitarianism like Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011, the intervention was very similar to imperial takeover in 19th century. The US talked about 'nation-building' to be carried out but it was clear that they had their own interests in mind just as Britain did when Lloyd George orchestrated the carve-up of the Ottoman Empire. Arab nation states were charted in the early 1960s to create national independence for the various Arab groups. But the leaders of the Arab states, brought to power and armed by UK and the US at the time are now dubbed as ruthless dictators using nationalism to justifying their hold to power. However, the US has always viewed Arab nationalism as a mask for racism and militarism against its freedom and the existence o Israel. The Arabs themselves lack an ideology that would enable them compete as a focus of loyalty with religious sects and ethnic groups. The rebels and reforms in the Arab world have taken the lives of millions and raised their respective countries to debris without resolving anything except creating more dilemmas.
I believe the status quo in the Middle East should change but I will never support the destruction of the Middle East by Arabs. I will never support the invitation to the Crusaders to come back to the Middle East. I will never support the army or airforce of the US, Canada or UK bombing majority Muslim populated lands, the beautiful citadel of Islam. Once the Arabs resisted colonialism and today we are supporting it. What kind of Arab revolution would require the presidents of US, UK, France to bomb the countries which the companions of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) conquered to establish Islam. What kind of Arab revolution is this? So a principle for me is that the Arabs must liberate themselves. If the imperial powers come to liberate us, they will make an Abu Ghraib and Bagram in every single country full of Muslims and exchange a small tyrant for a bigger tyrant.
How should the Arab liberate themselves? Islamic literature, history and culture - offers an integrated and comprehensive solution to bad governments and civil wars. Stay tuned inshaAllah...
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