Roger Cohen has a column in the New York Times that conjectures on where the popular overthrow of the despotic government of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali (pictured at right) in Tunis might lead in the rest of the Arab world. A world, except for the dominance of Islam rather than Christianity, that mirrors the type of government the extreme Christianists in the USA favor with centralized dictatorial power and at least outward strict religious fundamentalism. If one wants to know what a theocracy in this country would look like if the Tony Perkins and James Dobsons had their way, Saudi Arabia is perhaps the best model, although I'm not sure who the Christianists would want to take the throne. My money would be on Dobson since he surely has a large enough ego and plenty of groveling sheep like followers. Getting back to the Arab world, dictators and religious fundamentalism have retarded progress and modernity for years. The question now is whether a desire for freedom and opportunity will cause other populations to mirror the events in Tunisia and demand an overthrow of the fossilized regimes that benefit few but the ruling class. Here are highlights from Cohen's column:*
Now, the Tunisian dictator of 23 years, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, has fled to the mother lode of regional absolutism, Saudi Arabia, driven out by new social media and old-fashioned rage. Protesters communicating on Facebook and irked by what WikiLeaks had revealed of the Ben Ali family’s Caligula-like indulgence were roused to shatter the security state of yet another Arab despot.
The unseating through popular revolt of an Arab strongman is something new: It has already caused ripples from Amman to Cairo, from the Gulf to Tripoli — and it will cause more.
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This signal event, of still uncertain outcome, is long overdue. Arab regimes, many of them U.S. allies, have lost touch with young populations. Their ossified, repressive, nepotistic, corrupt systems have proved blind to the awakening stirred by satellite TV networks, Facebook posts, tweets, Web videos and bloggers.
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They have proved skilled only at provoking guffaws at their regular “elections” and fostering the rise of extreme Islamism among populations left with no refuge but religion. Their “stability” has been sustained at the price of paralysis. It has depended on a readiness to terrorize and torture. These Arab holdovers, moribund as the waxworks at Madame Tussauds, are ripe for transformation, the anciens régimes of 2011.
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The U.S. responsibility for this Arab failure has been significant: America has preferred the stable despot to the Islamist risk of democracy (despite the fact that the only likely remedy to the seductive illusion of political Islamism is the responsibility of government). It is now imperative that the Obama administration and the European Union stand behind Tunisia’s democratic forces.
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Last month, after a visit to Beirut, I wrote a column called “The captive Arab mind” about the psychological cost of repression in the region: the reflex of blaming others, the perception of conspiracies everywhere and the paralyzing fear of acting or thinking for oneself. Tunis can be Act One in the liberation of the Arab mind.
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Western double-standards in the supposed interest of Arab stability have proved a recipe for radicalization. The West should honor Tunisian bravery with some of its own. Dynasties rusting on their thrones are not the answer to Arab disquiet.
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Dictators, corrupt monarchs, Popes, and religious extremists of all faith have a common denominator - they all seek to crush out independent thought and logic. I hope logic and independent thinking win the day in Tunisia.
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