Jamal Aliyali
What happened in the Middle East and North Africa during the last few months is of concern to many people around the world. However, there are other big issues such as the Fukoshima disaster, refugees, and starvation all around the world, which may seem to have been caused by nature itself. But what is happening in the Middle East and Northern Africa are caused by humans which is why we need to study and understand them.
The West has supported regimes in the area so as to secure its own concern without paying any attention to what the people under these regimes really need. The people refuse to become slaves under the totalitarian regimes which has captured, tortured, and killed every single soul who has tried to resist even through peaceful means. They were not allowed to by any means acquire their goals, their benefits, or their basic needs.
These regimes were not able to prohibit the frightened and hopeless people from going to the mosques; neither could they stop the relationship between people and the religious leaders. These two factors are needed to turn people into strong believers that will expect their efforts to be recognized by the Lord; we can still recall how it was 800 years ago. We have seen the effects of this policy, how this created instability and anti-democracy.
What we see in the Middle East and North Africa today, for instance Syria and Iran, are effects from a high speed chain of events, the tip of the iceberg. But the long-term effects we cannot see; the changes which need time to develop will also take time to appear. Are we ready to meet these changes, or are we to be surprised yet again? It depends on how we discuss these new issues and how we try to perceive them. Let us be sure that we are on the side of freedom and democracy, let us be sure that we do not pretend to want democracy. We should understand the new situation which had taken shape gradually.