There is a great deal of jubilation over the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and pretty much the rest of the Arab world. I suggest however you don't wish for a revolutionary government too hard, you may actually get it.
I think the fall of secular states in today's Muslim world is hardly cause for celebration. If history is any indication, those uprisings, in the absence of well organized democratic organizations, will almost certainly end up in bringing Muslim extremists to power (just today, the head of the Tunisian Islamist party "Ennahdha," Rached Ghannouchi, who lived in exile in London, arrived in Tunisia).
Let's hope the Tunisians and Egyptians have learned a lesson or two from what happened to their brethren in Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan (and Iraq?). Let's hope Muslims invest more in civil society building, and less in revolt and revolution. It is the governments of the Muslim countries that drive people to revolt, but we need more restraint, and less passion in that part of the world. |