[Debate] A Muslim View - Of dictators and liberators

[Ran Greenstein]

The most important fallacy of this kind of analysis is inability to
look at political
realities without invoking conspiracies: if the Saudi and Qatari regimes align
themselves with the US it is because they share interests, not because
the former
are stooges of the latter. The same goes for their relationship with
Israel: their
interests intersect at some points and diverge at others. A rational
analysis would
seek to identify such points and their potential implications, rather
than replace
this task with empty rhetoric and invective

On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com> wrote:

> Of dictators and liberators

> Zafar Bangash, Reflections
>
> With notable exceptions, dictators rule much of the Muslim world. They carry
> many fancy titles: kings, amirs, presidents, prime ministers and, of course
> generals and colonels. What is common between them is that they are all
> subservient to the West even while they terrorize their own people.
> The uprisings that erupted in the Muslim East (aka the Middle East) more
> than a year ago have changed the political landscape in radical ways. Old
> equations have been disrupted and Middle Eastern tyrants have been forced to
> adopt a new language and style even as they continue to implement old
> policies hoping to ride out the storm. They have also been exposed in ways
> they did not wish to reveal for fear of antagonizing their people further.
> Thus, while it was always known that the tribal and family-run regimes are
> subservient to the US, their links with the Zionist State were a closely
> guarded secret. Barring three countries — Turkey, Egypt and Jordan — that
> have had open relations with Zionist Israel, others have been coy about
> these links. The Islamic Awakening sweeping the region has forced these
> regimes to come out of purdah. Two regimes in particular, Saudi Arabia and
> Qatar, both family-run fiefdoms stand utterly exposed as not only American
> but Zionist stooges.


-- 
Ran Greenstein
Johannesburg, South Africa