So I'm twenty or so hours into an Intensive Arabic for Beginners class from the USDA. I have an excellent instructor and interesting classmates: a military officer, a full-time blogger, business leaders, students, people who have spent time in the Middle East and more. During the break tonight, three of us were talking in a commons area and the instructor joined us. The talk turned to democracies in the Arab world, and the instructor brought up an interesting point.
Background: he is a native Egyptian but has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and northern Africa. He immigrated several years ago and teaches Arabic to diplomats at the World Bank in his day job. He once told us he was offered $150,000 to be a translator in Iraq, but jokingly estimated his chances of being killed were around 99%. His job is to know Arab culture and he seems to be very frank about cultural realities (a couple should never check into a hotel in the Arabian Gulf countries without presenting a marriage license).
Anyway, he was comparing for us the Arab dictatorships versus democracies, giving the example that "we could never be having this conversation in a dictatorship because we don't know who works for the police." For that government to survive, it must have it's thumb on everything. According to him, the riots we see about the depictions of Mohammad are orchestrated by the government. Riots simply do not spontaneously happen in a totalitarian society because citizens face horrible punishments for speaking their mind.
His point reminded me of stories about the Chinese government organizing student protests against Japan. I thought I remembered that the government actually provided buses to students to come from the university and protest against Japan not paying reparations from WWII. His point was that we project our motives for riots onto the people we see on TV, but more than likely it's simply a stunt to keep their ruler popular and in power.
I thought his take was interesting. I haven't followed the stories about the riots that closely, but I don't suppose we'll be hearing any of that background from CBS or the New York Times.
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I actually have followed the riots story closely and there is plenty fishy with it. First, a Danish newspaper first printed the cartoons, yet soon after their first publication a Muslim Imam from Denmark travelled the middle east in December with the cartoons on display. His display featured inflammatory cartoons that were never printed by the paper. This is a fact.
Second, many of the AP pictures (nearly all of them) have the protesters burning Danish flags. Where did they get them all from? Are there that many Danish flags in Lebanon laying around on store shelves? Of course not. Shady? Oh, yes...
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