Here's What Middle Eastern Moderates Actually Think and Say

[Valin]

Rubin Reports:

Barry Rubin

5/2/12

 

Over and over again I hear them: Egyptians who have lost hope that their country can be saved from Islamist dictatorship (this is what the people want, one says); the Lebanese who can no longer stand up to the threats of the Hizballah-dominated government; Turks disgusted as the Western media ignore the arrests and persecutions of respected people who have devoted their lives to the country or contemporary dissidents; and so on.

 

In a recent letter to me, a Middle Eastern democracy advocate who fled revolutionary Islamism to the West--there will be thousands more in the years to come--reflected on his experiences in light of my articles. These are the people the West is betraying, to its own detriment. The so-called liberals (leftists pretending to be liberal) who apologize for, lie about, and even help anti-Western Islamist dictatorships should take note of such individuals who are the hope of their homelands but have themselves lost hope:

 

"At the very beginning of the Iranian revolution (before the revolution was highjacked by the Islamists), many youth including myself considered ourselves as leftists. To us, people on the left were progressive, social justice oriented and were struggling to establish freedom and equality.

 

(Snip)

 

"I am disgusted by seeing how narrow minded they are and how ignorant they are toward crimes done by Hamas and the Islamic regime in Iran. These so-called leftists are nothing by a bunch of hypocrites who have nothing to offer to the oppressed people of the Middle East. Now, I consider myself as a liberal, a true liberal who cannot ignore nor forget the oppressive life in Iran and who stands for freedom, and social justice."

(Snip)