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End of Stress for World's Ticking Social Bomb

Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what we are told;

Religious dogma is doing what we are told, no matter what is right.

- Elka Ruth Enola, Canadian poet, advocate, teacher, opponent of Sharia-based schools

A bit of departure from my usual range of topics for this article as I attempt to explain

why so much trouble in every country in the Middle East is actually the best thing thatcould happen for the future of our world.

I recently finished reading Chasing A Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State, byTarek Fatah. Fatah is nothing if not blunt about a disease that is infecting every

democratic nation in the world. We might call the perpetrators of this disease terrorists,

suicide bombers or militant Muslims who have politicized one of the world's greatreligions for their own personal power or for the power of their leaders. Fatah calls them

Islamists. Comparing an Islamist to an ordinary Muslim is like comparing Adolf Hitler to

your average Christian. These people all worship(ed) the same God, but they do and did

so very differently.

When the great Prophet Muhammed completed setting down the Muslim holy book,

known as the Qur'an (or Koran or any number of other English spellings of an Arabicword), the last thing in the book was the clear statement that the book comprised the

whole religion of Islam, as given to him by Allah (the Arabic word for God). He made it

clear that what he wrote down as messages from Allah was a religion, a way to lead one'slife, a belief set, not a political formula. When he died shortly thereafter, struggle began

for leadership of the religion, but also for political leadership of all Muslims. Potential

leaders then and now don't follow the word of Allah (the Qur'an), the word of 

Muhammed or the word of any sincere Muslim imams since that time, but instead their own greed for power.

That struggle continues to this day, 1400 years later. It powers terrorism, radical Islamistswho lead violent revolutions when they can and use force to oppress or kill their own

people when necessary to gain or to hold power over them. As I write this, that powers

Moammar Gadhafi's slaughter of his own people in Libya, a country he seized control of and has held total authoritarian control over for 42 years. Gadhafi, like other political

leaders of the Arab world (some of whom have been ousted already, some are still

struggling to hold power), believes that he holds ultimate power over his people by divineright. Divine right means that he believes he was anointed by Allah.

When demonstrations in Tunisia toppled the president of the country, it troubled world-

watchers who expected the Middle East (almost exclusively Arab, except for PersianIran) to ignite with civil wars virtually overnight. The Tunisian demonstrations had been

peaceful, but they were not expected to be so elsewhere. Then hundreds of thousands of 

Egyptians (to start, they became millions) gathered in Tahrir (liberation) Square, in Cairo.Egyptian demonstrations were notorious for being bloody, even deadly, in the past. This

time they were peaceful and President Mubarak resigned (encouraged by his own

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military). Something had changed.

Demonstrations in other Arab countries have also been peaceful. Libya became violentonly when Gadhafi's military fired real bullets at unarmed demonstrators and killed many

of them. The only Arab countries where large demonstrations have not happened were in

places like Saudi Arabia and Syria, where the military stopped demonstrators quickly andassisted some of them to "disappear" permanently. Within the Arab world, people knew

that other Arabs under all other autocratic regimes were also ready to shake off the

shackles of oppression by their dictatorial leaders (sometimes also known as "kings,"often as presidents-for-life).

Why should we who live in free countries care? Saudi Arabia (home of two of Islam's

most important cities, Medina and Mecca and owner of about 20 percent of the world'sknown oil supplies) has sponsored schools and universities that teach nothing but militant

Islamism in every democratic country in the world. The Saudi royal family has spent

billions of dollars on these schools, building them and maintaining them, for many years.

These are the schools that teach young people who become suicide bombers, aggressive

demonstrators at G8 and G20 summits, political candidates who claim prejudice againstMuslims in order to gain enough sympathy to get them elected to political office in many

parts of the world. That includes the USA, the UK and Canada where the schools are kept

open and active when police try to shut them down by their leaders cry prejudice in the

media.

Meanwhile, back in the home countries in the Middle East, the leaders have blamed the

US, the UK, Israel and the West in general for all the problems in their respectivecountries. Especially for poverty of the people, which the leaders have claimed is caused

by the capitalist West. Politically left-leaning people in the West believed the claims of 

the Middle East leaders and the imams of the Islamic schools. In Canada, for example, acountry that prides itself on its official multiculturalism, the New Democratic Party has

often publicly supported the Islamic schools, claiming prejudice against them in matters

such as the wearing of the hijab.

The people, the ordinary citizens of Middle Eastern countries, were apparently not fooled

though we didn't know that. They finally admitted to themselves that their problems were

caused by their own greedy leaders and not by the US or Israel. Now the people want tothrow out the lying militants that have ruled their countries for so many years.

They will succeed, as large masses of people always do eventually. To you, that willmean that Islamist schools and mosques run by militant imams in your country will have

their main sources of income (such as oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Iran) dry up. That will

likely reduce the risk of terrorist problems in your country considerably. That couldchange the political climate in your country. Not just for the next few years, but forever.

It might mean that sociopathic industries in the West who have made uncountable

billions of dollars by teaching us to fear "terrorists" may finally have to become more

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ecologically friendly with their environment--with our environment--as we turn our 

attention to their pollution of the air we breathe and the water we drink and away from

"terrorists" who never presented much of a threat to us anyway. As the poor citizens of Middle Eastern countries mature and take control of their own destinies away from power 

hungry and greedy autocrats, we will mature along with them and take control of our air 

and water--and of our own lives in many ways--away from industrialists. They had noright to teach fear and materialism to us to distract us from the emotional control they

have held over us for decades. By believing them we became emotional slaves to their 

will, which was always to make huge profits, no matter what effects that had on our livesor our environment.

Let's cheer for the citizens of the Middle East, but not send our militaries there. They

don't want us to interfere. They want to feel that they are finally in control of their ownlives. If our militaries interfere, people like Gadhafi will slaughter their own people and

blame the West for starting civil wars.

Let's learn from them. It seems they are ready to treat us as brothers and sisters after all.We should respond accordingly, with respect.

Bill Allin is the author of Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic

Social Problems, a guidebook for parents and teachers who want to know how to develop

the children in their charge socially and emotionally as well as intellectually and

physically. Our worst social problems are caused by people who are underdeveloped or maldeveloped socially and/or emotionally.

Learn more at http://billallin.com