The "Arab Spring" Between Authoritarianism and Islamism

Asia News ^ | 4/4/11 | Samir Khalil Samir

[marshmallow]

Hopes for a profound transformation of the Middle East begin to wane. The weakness of the young revolutionaries faced with the might of the army and Islamist parties who want to seize the fruits of change. Christians in Syria, forced to support the authoritarian regimes to save religious freedom. Democracy and secularism seems to be an impossible combination. The positive case of Lebanon.

Rome (AsiaNews) - In recent months, North Africa and the Middle East have been shaken by the winds of the so-called "Arab spring". Especially in Egypt where there were demonstrations of national unity between Christians and Muslims, a desire see more democracy, more respect for human rights, more jobs.

Now, a few weeks since the fall of Mubarak, there appears to be a return to "normal" or perhaps a "normalization": the referendum on new constitution has not changed much on paper, and the army has banned public demonstrations, the Muslim Brotherhood has become more assertive ...

Even in Tunisia there is the same difficulty in finding a way of government that is not marked by past corruption, and meanwhile a war is underway in Libya, which for the first time ambiguously involves the West. Here follows the thoughts of our expert on Islam.

Is there no future for this Arab spring?

In an attempt to answer these questions, I will mainly concentrate on the situation I am most familiar with, Egypt. On one hand, it is perfectly normal that after the past few months of upheaval people want to return to everyday normality: the reopening of schools so students do not loose an entire academic year, a return to work to spur an economy still in crisis. The attitude of the army is normal and it was predictable: We will support you - they say -

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

Methinks the folks in Cairo are suffering from a bit of buyers remorse. They will soon be Iran-West.

[GOPJ]

Drudge has a story on 'profound' change ... might want to check it out: Tajik Muslims to ban text message divorces...