BBC: Why the ME anger?

francoHFW

Diamond Member
Sep 5, 2011
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NY 26th FINALLY DEM!
The Arab Spring is not an adequate explanation for this upswell of anger

More than three years ago, President Barack Obama famously told a Cairo audience that "we meet at a time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the world".

His speech, titled A New Beginning, sought to transcend the acrimony of the Bush era.

This week, as violent protests rage across the Middle East and beyond, the president might ask himself: What went wrong?

The truth is that there is no single explanation.

One answer is that last year's wave of political uprisings, the so-called Arab Spring, is responsible.

After all, protests began in Egypt, which last year became the most populous Arab democracy, and spread to Libya, which became the largest by area.

The Arab Spring did indeed invigorate a range of Islamist movements and weakened the law enforcement capabilities of the affected states.

The crowds ransacking embassies this week are negligibly small when compared to the popular mobilisations that swept away dictators. They are a shrill minority”

In that febrile political environment, protests might have been easier to start, simpler for violent extremists to exploit, and harder for confused security forces to manage.

However, this cannot explain why some of this week's most serious violence took place in Sudan, and other protests in places normally calm, as Qatar.

Additionally, such violence long pre-dates the Arab Spring and frequently took place under dictators, the most prominent examples occurring in the Middle East in 2006 after a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The second argument is that we are witnessing profound anti-Americanism, dormant for much of last year, fused with religious extremism - with the controversial Innocence of Muslims film merely a trigger.

According to a June 2012 Pew survey, just 15% of those in Muslim countries held a favourable opinion of the United States, compared to 25% in 2009.

Polls indicate that anti-Americanism stems from a variety of grievances, including US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, American wars in the Middle East, and US backing for friendly dictators.

The irony is that, whereas Barack Obama is sometimes pilloried by critics in the West for naively supporting the revolutions, most Arabs see his actions as too late and too little. In Tunisia, for instance, only a third believe that the US response to their revolution had a positive impact.

We should, however, distinguish anti-Americanism from religious extremism.

Although Arab ideas about freedom of expression are fundamentally divergent from Western ones - 84% of Egyptians want the death penalty for those who leave the Muslim religion - there are big generational gaps.

Those under 35 - the generation widely held up as the engine of the Arab Spring - are far less likely to pray several times a day, attend the mosque regularly, or read the Koran daily. They are being catalysed less by religion, and more by politics.

Pro-US current
Anti-American sentiment is not universal
Despite the widespread xenophobia evident in Egypt, 35% of Egyptians actually want Egypt-US relations to remain as strong as they were before the revolution, and a surprisingly high 20% want them to get even better. Sixty percent of Tunisians say that they like American ideas about democracy.

A Gallup poll this year showed that 54% of Libyans approve of American leadership, near the highest approval ever seen in the region.

Indeed, Libya has seen a series of protests supportive of the US, and against the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.


[The Benghazi attack] represents broader Libyan opinion no more than Anders Breivik did that of Norway”

Perhaps the most important fact is that the crowds ransacking embassies this week are negligibly small when compared to the popular mobilisations that swept away dictators. They are a shrill minority.

Even where it is widespread, anti-Americanism is simply not a sufficient explanation for outbreaks of violence.

In many cases, protests might have had little energy had local religious and political entrepreneurs, eager to bolster their following and create disorder, not exploited them.

In Khartoum, for instance, local buses were laid on to transport prayer-goers to protest sites.

In Libya, to speak of a protest is misleading. The assault in which US Ambassador Chris Stevens died was probably a co-ordinated, complex undertaking by an organised militant group, perhaps in concert with al-Qaeda's North African affiliate. It represents broader Libyan opinion no more than Anders Breivik did that of Norway.

This wave of violence will have longer-term repercussions.

The US has no legal mechanism to censor the provocative film and, with eight weeks to go before a national election, President Obama will be careful not to appear unduly willing to appease mob violence.

US hampered

American freedom of expression cannot be a subject of compromise for any administration. This means that such triggers for protest will recur, as there is no shortage of provocateurs.

BBC News - Film protests: What explains the anger?
 
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Muslims are not one society. There are islamists like those you see killing and burning. And there are moderates that you don't see much and they are as disgusted as you are with the islamists. There are liberals, socialists, democrats, conservatives...

What you see is the power display of islamists. They do this because they want more power. And as long as you people don't stand up and hold your ground, as long as you people don't defend your birth rights properly, as long as you people get pushed around by those animals, they will keep winning and winning and winning and getting what they are after at the end, more islam. You will see those countries sliding more and more to the islamist side.

And this is coming from an ex-muslim that actually lived what is described in here.
 
Doesn't happen overnight, RW ADD Foxbot. Luckily idiot Neocons are not in charge....get your a-hole fundies under control ferchrissake....LOL
 
Doesn't happen overnight, RW ADD Foxbot. Luckily idiot Neocons are not in charge....get your a-hole fundies under control ferchrissake....LOL
He's had three and a half years. And now the Islamists are attacking our embassies and killing Americans.

Obama's prophesy failed. There is no rational way to dispute that.

Of course, you will continue to dispute it irrationally.
 
The thing is that Obama hides the fact that those who take Islam literally and seriously are the problem and shoves it under the carpet.

And I have to be honest, Obama is in one hell of a tough pickle because Violence is on the rise and it could result in increased spending. What makes this so tough is how volatile this situation is and how little control he has over it because of the contradictions of the right to freedom of speech in the US, Diplomatic issues, and Their religion. You just can't put those 3 together. It's like water, oil, and a lit match.
 
9/11 = OBL = Predator Missiles that in my opinion is the cause. The date 9/11 had nothing to do with a movie and everything to do with the execution of OBL. I read they were chanting that they all were OBL.
 
Read the article. It's intelligence unknown on your planet, Foxbots. LOLThe protestors are a small minority, the Jihadists a tiny faction who are becoming more and more UNPOPULAR under Obama and DEMOCRACY. Have faith in democracy and information. First, change the channel- your info is all Pubcrappe.
 
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"According to a June 2012 Pew survey, just 15% of those in Muslim countries held a favourable opinion of the United States, compared to 25% in 2009"

That's not good, right?
 
Doesn't happen overnight, RW ADD Foxbot. Luckily idiot Neocons are not in charge....get your a-hole fundies under control ferchrissake....LOL

It's so characteristic of the radical left to pick on Fox to justify the various failures of the administration that you can almost set your watch by it. You almost gotta laugh at the left for blaming Rush for the incomprehensible failure of Obama's foreign policy but why not blame a voice on the radio? It beats trying to find out what the fuk is wrong with Barry and Hilly.
 
#16-That was when they expected too much out of Obama- now they know he's not going to make an Israel- Palestinian Peace overnight.
 
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Doesn't happen overnight, RW ADD Foxbot. Luckily idiot Neocons are not in charge....get your a-hole fundies under control ferchrissake....LOL

It's so characteristic of the radical left to pick on Fox to justify the various failures of the administration that you can almost set your watch by it. You almost gotta laugh at the left for blaming Rush for the incomprehensible failure of Obama's foreign policy but why not blame a voice on the radio? It beats trying to find out what the fuk is wrong with Barry and Hilly.

As always, you Foxetc bots are clueless... The PRAGMATIC CENTER is pissed that you fools are totally duped by far RW propaganda into believing this IS a big failure by Obama, rather than a BUMP caused as usual by RW ASSHOLES, insulting Muhammed, burning Korans, manufacturing a crisis over the debt limit, or the long term effects of total mindless obstruction and fear mongering day in and day out, in the middle of YOUR economic mess and YOUR manufactured war with the Muslim World.

It's going fine but takes time, ASSHOLES. LOL!

Change the GD CHANNEL, morons.
 
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