An article by Robert Fisk makes a good point:
the mass revolutions in the Arab world over the past four months mean that al-Qa’ida was already politically dead. Bin Laden told the world – indeed, he told me personally – that he wanted to destroy the pro-Western regimes in the Arab world, the dictatorships of the Mubaraks and the Ben Alis. He wanted to create a new Islamic Caliphate. But these past few months, millions of Arab Muslims rose up and were prepared for their own martyrdom – not for Islam but for freedom and liberty and democracy. Bin Laden didn’t get rid of the tyrants. The people did. And they didn’t want a caliph.
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I certainly hope this cartoon is an accurate prediction. Revolutions can be messy things, however.
The optimism, to say the least, is premature. They have not gotten rid of the mullahs. And in places like Bahrain, it is very distinctly a sunni vs. shia uprising, and less democracy vs. autocracy. The muslim world is still, despite all this, in the state that christendom was 1000 years ago. Until islam is fully purged from public life and policy, the gains will be minor and mostly cosmetic.
“fully purged from public life and policy” like Christianity?
“In God We Trust”