The Great Transformation

The Arab countries should lead the Muslim world including the Arabs into the 21 Century mentality of cooperation, democracy, free market, the rights of individuals including women and minorities. As I mentioned in previous articles or thoughts, we should start from the very beginning, from the curriculums that are in our schools and universities. Those curriculums that focus on struggle and conflict as a way of life for our people rather than just recording history as it was, unbiased. The outlook to the world should be different, rather than being the victim and wait for help, we should stand as many Asian countries did , and before that Europe and The US, and create a political, social and business models that focus on the future. It all should start by creating grass root social movements that use peaceful means to achieve democracy. A real democracy with freely elected parliaments. The process started in Iraq, with all its deficiencies, and it should continue all over. Syria and Egypt probably will be next to start the democratization process. The Middle Eastern countries should not be afraid of the political movements that use religion as its mantra or slogan. As long as everybody agrees that changes must be achieved peacefully. Turkey is another example. The ruling party now is an Islamic party that does not want or at least agrees that it's possible to combine the beliefs of the religion with the requirements of the modern state. In Europe and the US we have seen conservative parties rule with strong faith background. The Republican Party in the US and the Christian Democrats in Europe. The most important is that we must embrace faith as a private bond between the individual and God, not to be imposed on others, and must guarantee the freedom of religion. Evil and extremism will continue as mankind continues. But it's possible to transform the society where extremism can no longer penetrate the disgruntled layers of its people; that extremism will continue to live on the fringes. Disgruntled people would eventually know that change is possible through the ballots and not the bullets. The bottom line is that the Middle East, the cradle of civilizations and the great three divine religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam should not be lift alone or labeled as the bad son. It should be included in the civilized world. It's the job of the Middle Eastern countries to ensure its place in the train of civility. Last but not least, both Israel and Palestine are integral parts of the new Middle East. The Middle Eastern countries should continue to be separate political entities but can cooperate and integrate policies, especially economic policies through institutions similar to that of the European Union.

TBN, Aljazeera, 700 Club and Almanar-Common Ground

The most common ground among the above news networks is one thing: Incitement. There job is to incite and not to inform and analyze. They of course report news, and they analyze the news but the main goal is to incite and play on the sensitive cords and the strongest feelings, which are religion and national emotions. Both Almanar and TBN represent some sort of a religion message. TBN, the spread of Christianity as they see it and try to convert as many people as possible and of course fund raising and collect money from the masses. TBN has been attacking Islam in every way possible riding the wave of individuals and organizations using Islam to commit acts of terror. Almanar's job, as the mouthpiece of the Iranian backed Lebanese militant party Hezbollah, is to spread hatred, incitement, and honestly making the great religion Islam looks bad in the eyes of the world. Aljazeera on the other hand tries to play both the religion and the nationalistic emetic. It preaches pan Arabism and Islam in the same time. It attacks most of the Arab regimes but it does not offer clear unbiased views of the news. It magnifies the chasm between the Arabs and the west but it does not try to bridge the gap. The thing is we do not ask these news networks to act as reformers but we ask them not to increase the hatred among their followers. TBN and the 700 Club of Pat Robertson job should not attack Islam in every occasion. They should instead to focus on the message of Christianity of peace and tolerance. Almanar should not attack the west, the Jewish but it should report the news and analyze. Aljazeera should take the example of CNN and become a professional news organization and not just a mouthpiece for hatred. The world is full of other examples but I chose those four organizations because of their prominence, if I can use this word, among their followers.