Al-Qaeda and the protests/revolts

[lawgator1]

Analysis: Why Arab Spring could be al Qaeda's fall - CNN.com

Following up on earlier discussion, this is an interesting piece about how the weakened governments in some of these countries can't fend off Al Qaeda as well as currently, but that long term the ending of dictatorships is the key to making them irrelevant.

 

[sjt18]

The problem or potential danger is that desperate populations will often listen to the more radical voices and are by far the most easily manipulated. Even though well educated and civil, the Germans went from the Kaisers to Hitler.

I think the chances are unfortunately high that these revolutions will turn out more like Iran than Poland.

I caught just a short bit of the Dennis Prager show yesterday. He had an expert on Middle East affairs on his show who insisted that "freedom" didn't mean the same in the Muslim world as it does here and in the west generally or even the world generally.

As some of us have tried to point out here, Islam is theocratic. They do not draw the dichotomy between gov't and religion that we do. Therefore, a "free" gov't would necessarily NOT respect religious freedom as we think of it. So when we see Muslims in protest clamouring for "freedom"... they may not be and probably aren't talking about what we would consider "freedom" but rather the institution of an Islamic state.

I can understand the desire to have hope but the wiser attitude is caution and wariness.