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| Terror Networks & Islam |
| 'Kifaya': A word, a movement |
| 2005-03-28 |
| By Youssef M. Ibrahim Recent protests in Cairo and Beirut have been organized with the chant of a new Arab movement — kifaya, which is Arabic for "enough." The word is becoming a code for millions who want to seize their destiny, says Saad El Din Ibrahim, an Egyptian democracy advocate and sociologist. The slogan has surfaced in Lebanon's streets, where protesters have demanded a Syrian pullout, and in Cairo, where crowds have asked Hosni Mubarak to move on after 24 years as uncontested president. It is being echoed on TV talk shows, in opinion columns by Arab pundits and is no doubt being advocated by millions of Arabs in the privacy of their homes. Could this one-word symbol be a harbinger of a muscular, popular Arab revolt such as the movement that guided millions of people in Eastern Europe to topple the Berlin Wall and shed their despotic regimes after the fall of the Soviet Union? Certainly, Lebanon's street demonstrations, for instance, resemble what happened recently in Ukraine, where millions held forth daily until fake elections had to be undone and the opposition candidate eventually won. Syria may very well end up resembling Romania, where the ruling family was lined up in front of a firing squad, such is the anger there. Whether by accident or by design, President Bush's calls for democracy and tough handling of Arab rulers are provoking reform. Bush drove out the Taliban extremists in Afghanistan, where elections have been held. He pushed Egypt and Saudi Arabia to announce some form of representative elections and promise more. He forced Syria to announce a timetable for withdrawing its troops from Lebanon, pressured Kuwait to allow women to vote in upcoming elections and convinced Libya's Moammar Gadhafi to give up sponsoring terrorists and cough up all his secret files on connections with terror groups around the world. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Thisn not the thing they wear on their heds? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-03-28 4:31:43 PM |