The Reasons for the Events In Iraq and the Arab World

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980’s, the “era of collapsing ideologies” began. During this period, the consciousness of a new Arab generation became evident. Through this generation, another generation was born whose sensibilities unfolded during the past 10 years. This generation was raised and grew up under the wing of such non-ideology, without taking any ideology as an absolute. They were freed from an established, ideological mindset and released to the world, to life and to mankind. In other words, the outlook of this generation has widened. I am talking about the enlightened, well-educated young men and women who have achieved great, expansive things, since they are have been able to rise above sectarian and national concepts with awareness and appreciation.

That is, the human feeling of this generation has expanded. Subsequently, an understanding of freedom and of peaceful coexistence has permeated their minds and their emotions to a large degree. The new generation came to have a completely different disposition than that of the older generation that supported the regimes lurking above the Arab world. This calcified, rock-hard, ideological outlook does not coincide with the current historical moment of dynamic self-renewal. Moreover, the mindset of the new, enlightened generation differs entirely from that of those regimes. It is a fresh, open-minded point of view that deals with others with love and respect. This mindset is without the framework of a fixed, static ideology. Thus, the difference between dispositions is the most important cause, in my opinion, for everything that is happening now in the Middle East.

The current conflict is between two mindsets: the mindset of the narrow horizon regimes that produced wars, prisons, crime and poverty. The second mindset is that of the mindset of the new, enlightened generation that could no longer bear living under the wing of this ossified mindset. The new generation became very large compared to the old ones. Human feeling is at the heart of the new movement; since the new generation comes in direct contact daily with the older generation, their sensibility and knowledge became richer and more diverse. This generation sought to educate itself culturally, morally and peacefully to bring about the regime changes we are not witnessing. Consequently, the issue is one of inevitable, historical change. It is no longer limited to the issue of “I desire this dream and someone else desires that dream.” The issue is greater in my opinion. It became inevitable that a collision between these two mindsets would occur, and the victory, in my opinion, as we saw in Tunis and Egypt, goes to the new, enlightened point of view.

Without the youth agreeing to it in a conference, meeting or assembly, a collective lack of consciousness was instituted the past two decades that united all Arab youths. This unconsciousness was changed into a logical conscientiousness after Muhamed al BoAzizi immolated himself. This generation rose up with keen awareness in the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions, and subsequently all across the Arab world, this generation found its historical opportunity to break from the past.

Thus I reiterate and repeat that the issue now is between stagnation and progress, reaction and enlightenment. It is a conflct between the past and the future and ideological perception and human perception. I believe that the questions of poverty, prisons, shackles and freedoms were not the real or undetected reasons that stirred up the current conflict. Rather, the cause is latent in that the mindset of the new generation is no longer able to live with an antiquated frame of mind of the political order, which no longer suits their aspirations at all. And so I expect that these revolts will spread even to the most economically privileged Arab countries in the Gulf because the issue is no longer whether the system is just to a certain extent or generous toward its people to a certain extent; it is both of them, since this generation became conscious and totally aware that their regimes’ vision of humanity and life is unmoving, with limited horizons that no longer meet their own profound and human visions.

Behold, this generation realized that life is not superficial, urbane talk. It is not content to have a luxurious house, lots of money, peaceful sleep and delicious food. These things, without innovation and creativity, are not important for the new generation. Indeed, this generation shook and was able to rupture the stupid Oriental stereotype wherein the West considers the Arab lifeless and static. This depiction, which created an identity problem for expatriate Arabs in the West, began to shatter. My opinion, without exaggeration, is that this compelled the Obama administration and Europe to partly change their tune concerning these dazzling revolutions. Along with the lack of Western consciousness, whether politically or in general social terms, there is a narrow-minded view of the Arab world; on one hand, this view point decreased due to the Oriental depiction, and because of the depiction imbedded by the Arab regimes in the West, on the other. The iniquity of Arab regimes is great within their societies because they have generated a distorted picture of the Arab, the essence of whom is that democracy and modern human values do not suit Arab society. Thus, Mubarak said in his last press conference before stepping down that “Obama is a nice man, but he does not understand the Egyptian culture or society.” By this he means that Obama is dealing with democracy in a society that does not benefit from democracy. Is this not insolence and a crime in and of itself?

There is no complete democracy or complete dictatorship. There is an enlightened elite driving society according to civilian law, with the state protecting democracy in a strict, intensive way; there is the opposite in other places. This does not necessarily mean that all of society’s sons are building a democratic edifice. Perhaps, if the power upholding the law in a democratic society was removed, the wolves and animals of each class would appear, and then eliminate the values of democracy in a few days. The true, hidden reason for all of these revolutions, is latent in the particular conditions and the objectivity of the events that has developed now, whether the proprietors of these revolutions are aware of this or not. The new enlightened generation in the region needs to lead its people in order for these societies to live according to values that preserve the humanity of the individual, and protects their rights, respect, and freedoms safely. This is the dream. I believe that every change that has happened throughout history began with a dream. Let us continue to dream.