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Arabs everywhere must do all they can to avoid sliding further into
the abyss of sectarian conflict.
period has been that it has the same dignity enjoyed by the
witnessed the suppression and citizens of advanced Western
turning back of political reforms and East Asian countries.
and cultural and intellectual With the spiralling of the
transformations, away from sectarian wars taking place in
the freedoms sought for by Yemen and Syria, Arabs and
the people and deeper into Muslims are left wondering
authoritarianism. In many cases what will their world be like in a
the Arab Spring has been an decade? Who, if anyone, will be
Arab defeat par excellence. hailed as the biggest winner of
This period has seen religious these wars? Who creates and
conflict erupt in Egypt, Iraq, funds terrorist organisations
Syria, and Libya, among other like ISIS and al-Qaeda? Who
places. This has included will be held responsible for the
sectarian conflicts between atrocities being committed, just
fellow Muslims and a wide those wielding the weapons or
campaign to kill or displace those public figures across the
Christians and other religious region issuing genocidal fatwas
minorities. This is linked to the and calling for their followers to
growth of extremist religious kill their brothers in religion?
movements like ISIS and similar US President Barack Obama
brutal movements in North and was perhaps right when he said
Central Africa. These groups that ‘the greatest threat to Gulf
use the pretext of establishing Arabs is not being attacked
a so-called ‘Islamic Caliphate’ from outside countries but
in order to exploit religious discontent within their own
identity to kill and commit country, the wrath of angry
genocide. Full-scale civil wars youths who are unemployed
have raged in Libya, Yemen, and have a sense that there
and Syria, driven by internal is no political outlet for their
tribal, sectarian, or political grievances.’ Muslims must be
rivalries. This all has involved careful not to do the bidding of
the widespread exploitation despots and demagogues who
of women as victims of sexual only wish to preserve their own
violence. power at the expense of their
This is good news for the peoples’ freedoms, property,
dictators of the Middle East and dignity. Arabs and Muslims
who are desperate to distract everywhere must do all they can
their citizens from turning public to avoid sliding further into the
attention towards their basic abyss of sectarian conflict.
needs: freedom, democracy,
social and economic justice,
and the provision of essential Source: CNN
services to live their lives with
Hussein Revivalism 19
