Islamic Extremism in the Middle East

As events unfolded in Tunisia, then Egypt I couldn't get as excited as many people in this country and elsewhere. Only those who have little life experience, or little awareness of history, could become excited as though there would be revolution on Monday, elections on Tuesday and good old fashioned democracy established on Wednesday. I was astounded at the naivety of the media and so many other people in this country.

It is arrogant of people in the west to assume that people elsewhere in the world are all desperate for our style of democracy. They are obviously not. What the demonstrators want in the Middle East is a whole range of things, as diverse a range of hopes and needs as millions of people in any part of the world.

But if we choose to ignore the danger of militant Islam taking an even tighter grip in the Middle East then we are stupid beyond belief. What did these people think the demonstrators holding images of Mubarak with the Star of David imposed on his face were trying to say?

Here is the report of the murder of a Catholic priest in Tunisia amid a rise in Islamist violence since the revolution there.

Here is an article from the Daily Telegraph by Anne Applebaum about the attack in Cairo on Laura Logan and the biased reporting of recent events in Cairo.

I'm amazed at the naivety and downright stupidity of people in this country who were so excited at events in the Middle East. I fear what may happen there, and its impact on the rest of the world in the next few years.

We can only hope.