subject: Article 379: The Torch of Freedom Has Begun in the Middle East, with No Stop Signs [print this page] Article 379: The Torch of Freedom Has Begun in the Middle East, with No Stop Signs
Hasan Yahya, Ph.Ds, the Dean of Arab Writers in North America
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I wrote once, in one of my articles, "if dignity was lost among people, no one can expect what the outcomes may be if the people wanted to regain their dignity. What happened in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya , and others may follow, were signs of regaining Arab dignity. The torch sparked in Tunisia, transferred to Egypt, then Libya, other puppet regimes will follow, because they contributed in the first time for the loss of dignity. The success of Egyptian Revolution has made all Arabs feel happy to regaining their dignity.
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Over the past few weeks, The whole world, in America, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa have seen by their eyes that freedom is winning in the Middle East. Freedom is knocking down autocrats and monarchs, open up channels for information, ideas, and discourse-the poles of democracy-. As a result protests were observed in many other countries, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, and Morocco.
While political Analysts asked questions such as: Why is the Middle East turning upside down right now? Why Tunisia was the first? Why the Egyptian revolution succeeded? Who's next? When this domino effect will stop? Answers were given. For example they hypothesized that young, well-educated, unemployed populations, connected to the world through social media, have rising expectations emerge from access to the rest of the world. Others hypothesized that the long time ruling corrupted regimes continue to rule away from the reality of the public. A third hypothesis was given that these revolutions were not Islamicly oriented but led by religious morality. None of these hypotheses proved true. Because nobody would have predicted that all this would have been ignited by the single match of self-immolation in Tunisia. They all forgot the principle of democracy, where freedom, social justice, and innovation were behind all revolutions, the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions were not excluded.
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Arab people all over the Middle East were under national depression and dignity loss for a long time since the collapse of 1967 war. Time has come to celebration self confidence of the people. The start was Tunis, followed after a short time with the Mother of all, Egypt. The peaceful revolution brought back Arab dignity, and transferred Arab psychological situation from lack of dignity to a dignity regained. Tunis and Egypt and the unrest in several other Arab countries enhanced dignity regaining among Arabs,. The celebration crossed the borders, and handed the torch to other people felt dignity becoming alive. (443 words) www.askdryahya.com
