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A very different "radical" revolution

Needless to say, and not unexpectedly, there has been much reflection and introspection about 9/11, the 10 years which have elapsed since that fateful day and where the world is now. All too sadly the commentary has been shallow and not come to grips with the realities of the world today.

Take events in the Middle East of recent times as but one example of changes which have happened, even so many years later, post 9/11.

"Shortly after President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was forced from power, radical Islamists, with their long beards and rigid views, joined in street protests in Cairo. That sight quickly stoked the same Western fear that for decades helped justify support for Middle Eastern dictators: Democracy might allow radical Muslims to come to power.

But that perception — still widely held in the West — missed a transformation that was taking place. Those same radical Islamists, who once embraced an ideology that rejected participating in societies they deemed un-Islamic, including their own, were now engaged with their fellow citizenry. Peacefully engaged."

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"The Sept. 11 attacks were in part inspired by a radical ideology and belief that the fundamental problems plaguing Arab and Muslim people could be resolved by attacking foreign powers, those propping up dictators, promoting Western culture, oppressing Islam and corrupting civilization.

The Arab Spring has turned that formula inside out, negating premises fundamental to a world that bore and nurtured Osama bin Laden. Arab majorities, still harboring resentment toward Western policies, are first looking inward to promote change, blaming their own leaders for decades of political, economic and cultural decline. There is a degree of societal introspection taking place, one that was pointless in totalitarian societies that discouraged, and often punished, civic participation."

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"In many ways, the Arab Spring has recast the Arab world from what emerged after 9/11. Paradoxically, the attacks by Al Qaeda helped to reinforce the status quo they were aimed at overturning, giving breathing room to Arab strongmen who relied on fear and repression to preserve their authority. The West continued to subjugate concerns for human rights and democracy to the fear of terrorism.

“We’re talking about two different worlds — one has strengthened the regimes and secret systems and dictatorship and acted exactly contrary to the demands of democracy and freedom,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a political science professor at United Arab Emirates University. “And the other has fundamentally toppled dictatorships that have been around for decades and has brought the Arab freedom moment, which is the moment we are living.”

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