Unrest in North Africa and Middle East with poverty as one of many reasons.

When I was writing on protests in Egypt (here), I mentioned various pundits mentioning poverty as one of reasons behind these protests and I explicitly stated that for a society which has TFR (total fertility rate) above 3 for more than 5 decades, no economic theory or program can solve the problems like poverty and employment. Well, it seems that Muslims themselves are saying this in Bahrain.

Bahrain is a small kingdom with 100% Muslim population, of which 70% of Muslims follow shia sect while 30% follow Sunni sect. But, much of political power is vested in Sunni as Royal family itself belongs to Sunni sect. This has resulted in uneasy relationship to the extent that Sunni executive power recruits people of Pakistan belonging to Sunni sect in to its army; Shites feel discriminated in every aspect of life while Sunnis maintain that shites are more loyal to Iran rather than their own country i.e. Bahrain. Sunnis want political status co to be continued while shites want political reforms thus, they are involved in protests against monarchy.

The New York Times writes:

....During 90 minutes over coffee in a street-side cafe in the city, they offered a critical counterpoint to the protesters. While the Shiites see themselves as discriminated against and marginalized, these children of the upper middle class said the Shiites were largely responsible for their own plight, a position that seemed to overlook established patterns of discrimination in Bahrain. They said that what the demonstrators wanted was not democracy, but superiority.

They blamed the Shiites for having too many children, for not being willing to work hard and for demanding handouts from the government. “Whose fault is it when you have five or six kids and you can’t afford two?” Ms. Mohammed asked. “Why is that the government’s fault?

Mr. Zainal was equally critical. “Plain and simple,” he said. “The uneducated people of Bahrain, or the world, you have kids to support and you pull the kids out of school to sell water at the roadside, you cannot blame the government.”

“The educated,” he said, “understand the value of keeping their children in school.”......

One can read the complete report here. 

Oppression in Islam and present day protests.

Entire main stream media in west has glorified protests that took place in Tunisia and Egypt and the protests that are taking place in other countries now. They (media) give the impression that western type secular democracy is being desired and sought by Muslims in these countries and so, it will be; many ignorant readers believe this kind of disinformation if not intentional propaganda. Trust me: same media will not cover the follow up to these so called revolutions in same vigor to escape the obvious ridicule as media is never the one to admit and showcase its mistakes.

Ask this question to yourself: If Muslims, who migrated to western countries and who lived there for many years, have not integrated in to secular democratic societies of west then, what makes our intellectuals and media believe that Muslims back in Islamic countries want and support secular democracy! 

Protests in Egypt.

For the last 10 days I am following news on protests in Egypt which eventually brought down Mubarak (it is not entirely clear) and also exchanged some views with Indians via comments at the end of news reports. Some supported the protests against Govt. of Mubarak and some even wished that Indians also protest against corruption. And some suggested that if these protests spread to Saudi Arabia and topple existing Govt. then funds will stop flowing to terrorist organizations. Then I came across a blogger writing on these protests under the title ' i like my freedom '. I am not sure where the blogger stands, but from a news article she referred to I feel that she thinks Egyptians are fighting for their freedom.

It is crystal clear that most people after being fed by main stream media, which itself is influenced by leftist philosophy and guided by political correctness, think that one of the reasons for every thing that is wrong in middle east (Arab World) is lack of democracy and existing dictator ships. Other cited reason is interests of USA.