.... Nearly nine years after the invasion of Iraq, the theory that western-style democracy could be successfully transferred to the Middle East has been tested to destruction. No Arab country has the law-abiding middle-class that will dutifully follow the edict of a democratically elected government.
Arab societies are usually divided by family, clan, sept, sect and tribe, and in such complex fissures as to prevent simple adherence to the state. And in all Arab countries, their Christian communities are now increasingly under physical threat.
.... The myths of the Arab Spring even infected the Nobel awards; the joint peace-prize went to Tawakkol Karman, for her role in the "pro-democracy" movement in Yemen. Yet her party is the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. How long before its fundamentalism consumes her and all the hopes and dreams of women in Yemen, a country where 25pc of girls still undergo the evil of genital-mutilation? [Independent.ie] Read more [via The Iconoclast]
