Tell me why such a movement would develop. In most of these countries where the extremist elements are coming to power, they are fighting some sort of opression. That's why you see Islamist groups sweeping the elections anywhere that there is a free democratic process. Why would they waste efforts trying to rid themselvese of these "fascists" when they deem Islam under attack from the West, and see these elements as the only actors capable of defending them? Take Lebanon for example, a country that had taken steps to democratize, and stood up to Syrian elements. We now allow them to be bombed into smitherines, and everyone is surprised when groups like Hezbollah gain even more support? You can't have your cake and eat it too. These things work in cycles. Islam has had phases of progressivism in its history (see: Islamic Spain). Its currently going through an extremist phase due to several factors. You can't just act like this metamorphosis is ocurring in a vacuum. If you want to empower the moderates to root out extremism, you can't give the extremists a reason to take to their pulpits.
See Iran, but...Don't be like Iran....That should be the new world middle east order... DOWN with ISLAMIC FACISM> DEATH to them all who pervert the good religion and use innocent women and children as shields!
Ok, so you're saying that "Islamic Facism" is now mainstream and is a significant part of the muslim world....in which case, it's something that's on the rise. I'm not sure what the solution should be. I mean, if Israel were to demilitarize, and Iran were to acquire nukes...and even if Israel withdrew from all the occupied "terror"tories (couldn't resist), what would happen? Would Hamas stop? Would Iran stop? With Hezbelloh stop? I don't think so....
Nonsense. If there was an actual free election in Iran, the Islamists would not sweep the election. "Islam under attack from the West" - what bull****. Islamic extremists, among many other things, blew up the World Trade Center and killed thousands of people. Who attacked there? The innocent people on the planes? Bull****. The guilty party was Hezbollah. Israel was merely reacting to their aggression. It is unfortunate that the majority of people in Lebanon and the islamic world have so far failed to understand this. However, it is stated in the official UN resolution that Hezbollah was responsible for this war.
Bush drops reference to 'Islamic fascists' http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5280312&nav=2HAB President Bush has avoided repetition of a term that angered Muslims. Responding last week to the foiling of an alleged plot to blow up flights between Britain and the United States, Bush said, "This nation is at war with Islamic fascists." That triggered immediate objections from the Council of American-Islamic Relations, and another objection today from the government of Saudi Arabia. In a statement after its weekly meeting, the Saudi Cabinet "warned against labeling Muslims with accusations of terrorism and fascism." Bush didn't repeat the reference to "Islamic fascists" at the State Department today, referring instead to "individuals that would like to kill innocent Americans to achieve political objectives." Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Kidnapping military soldiers, does not excuse any and all actions. Israel was reacting. Their reaction was as big of a problem as the kidnapping of military personnel, if not more so. That then caused a Hezbollah reaction which was also wrong. I don't have a problem with attacking Hezbollah, going after the soldiers etc. But we have evidence of a plan of a major offensive already planned out, and just looking for an excuse to use it. Then we have a major offensive by the Israelis which targeted civilians and civilian structures. They actually had the idea that would make people dislike Hezbollah, and not them. It was a stupid and immoral plan. Both sides were the bad guys.
I think Israel had to over react to stop them from doing another kidnapping again. Come in and show some serious strength...but I also think they have to assasinate Hezzballah's leader too. DD
Hezbollah was simply reacting to Israel's aggression in taking Hezbollah prisoners, in invading Lebanon 20 years ago, in using assassination as governmet policy, in occupying land that isn't theirs, etc. The UN also has several decades old resolutions against Israel that precede the existence of Hezbollah. When will those "official" UN resolutions be addressed? I'm guessing it will be right about the time Iran is actually powerful enough to wipe Israel off the map. After all, might makes right in the neo-con world and Muslims are learning that lesson quite well at this point. It's unfortunate there are people like yourself that refuse to acknowlege and accept the full scope of the problem in that part of the world because as powerful as we are militarily, it will be our ideas that ultimately win this war. The average Muslim around the world doesn't hate us for our freedoms. They just might hate us for our arrogance though, or because we've meddled in their countries for decades, and or maybe because our country is the shining city on the hill and when we're faced with the opportunity (responsibility even) to do right by them, we keep screwing them over. Listening to Bush talk out of his ass about freedom and democracy while he's good buddies with the royals in Saudi Arabia and the dictator in Pakistan just adds to the anger. It's probably not possible for this administration to miscalculate our position in the world to any greater degree than they have already.
A fair deal for the Palestinians would be a good start. Not a mockery of the peace process like the one suggested at Oslo. Give the Palestinians a state where they actually control their own water and borders. Is that so much to ask?
You provided one example. They've swept elections in Morocco, "Palestine", Algeria (prior to being banned), and I can guarantee you the brotherhood would win in Egypt, Islamists elements would topple Musharraf in Pakistan, and that the Saudi royal family does not garner much support. Yea, since your memory can only go back a few weeks, sure. This was a continuation of a 20 year conflict. What about the thousands of Palestinians held hostage in Israeli dungeons? What about the Israelis kidnapping Palestinian council members? You don't take much umbrage to that huh? And it's also stated that Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank. You don't give two sh*ts about that, do you?
Tell that to Jordan who allowed them to come into their country, and they immediatly tried to overthrow the king and he supressed them by killing more than 50,000 Palastinains..... And Israel is NOT ILLEGALLY occupying anything, they won it fair and square in a war...... To the victor goes the spoils. DD
iran had nothing to do with 9/11. if anything remember they hated the taliban before the US did. secondly iran elected khatami on a reform platform. and granted he had little power but he was accomplishing minor things. this was all ended because of the axis speech and subsequent national security card played by the hardliners. and the examples are many. kuwait. palestine. lebanon. egypt. iraq. all these places have had elections and have had islamists gain influence.
I take great offense fom this post. Iran or the iranian natio ar not the enemy. we are just as much as victims of terror and fanatics as much as nyone. infact the persian/iranians are the bigget victims of islamic Fascists. we've been ruled and abused by such fanatics for the last 27 years. next time say, DONT BE LIKE THE MOLLAH'S. . iran s a victim in all these.
Khatami achived nothing because he was a spineless coward who sided with the leaders of the regime. in the end he choose the dictators over the people. there was a record numbers of journalis ARREST, POLITICAL EXECUTIONS AND NEWSPAPERS BEING CLOSED. in the end, all of the reformist like ganji, admited that khatami was a puppet of the supreme LEADER. there is no room for democracy in the mollah's system.
There are a lot of problems with this kind of viewpoint. For one, the occupation is illegal as UN resolution 242 and subsequent resolutions have stated. But in any case, it is immoral. Israel captured lands already populated by Palestinians. Because Israel supposedly won it "fair and square" does not mean it is moral to keep the Palestinians as oppressed occupied stateless peoples living under squalid worse than apartheid conditions. The US also won the war against Japan "fair and square". It doesn't mean that it would have been right if the US decided to annex Japanese lands as US settlements and made the Japanese stateless second-class non-citizens of a non-country living in horrible conditions in perpetuity. I see no reason why Israel is being allowed to do something which the Allies in WWII would not have been allowed to do in its aftermath.
You are joking, right? The Geneva Convention? War is not decided by a convention but by force and Israel won....and the only thing stopping them from completely wiping out their enemy is the fact that the Nazis did something similar to them in WW2. The Palastinians are the Arab whiping boys, not allowed to be citizens in most arab countries, yet these same Arab countries use them as an example of Israelie injustice. What a joke. DD