Do ordinary people in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Sudan, and all the other Arab countries suffering from wars, civil tension, and social, religious, and confessional divisions have any options? Do they have opinions about what is taking place around them and affecting their daily lives, the fate of their families, the education of their children, and their future? Or must they accept what is being imposed on them by force and coercion? Are they supposed to choose only between the dictator and the extremist, and between the tyrant and the terrorist? Are there no alternatives to all of this oppression being brought unto them, at times in the name of nationalism and at others in the name of religion? The boy from Aleppo who was killed by Islamist extremists a few days ago after being accused of "blasphemy" was a victim twice: the first time because he used a figure of speech which the foreign fighters did not understand, since they speak formal Arabic, to indicate his refusal to sell on credit, and so they killed him in his own neighborhood, in his own country, and in front of his own mother. The second time was because he was a minor under fifteen years of age, who could not under any law, Islamic or other, suffer the death penalty even if he truly had committed a crime worthy of it. The Syrian people have become like the boy Mohammad Qataa, stuck between the crimes and violence of the regime's army, its militias, and Hezbollah fighters on the one hand, and fighters on the other hand who occupy themselves with imposing Sharia Law on frightened civilians instead of fighting at the front. The condemnations issued by opposition factions are not sufficient. In fact, the resolve should be reached to bring the murderers to justice and prosecute them for breaching their duty to protect civilians and for committing a crime against humanity. If the price of discipline within the ranks of the opposition is a few clashes here and there, then so be it, because the future of the revolution is more important than a few overzealous fighters. The matter is not limited to direct killing in countries like Syria and Lebanon, like what took place in front of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, as there is similar moral killing that is no less criminal and terrorist taking place in Egypt and other countries. Indeed, Egyptian women who took to the streets and public squares of Egypt to demand the fall of the Mubarak regime, with some of them falling victim and others being imprisoned, had not imagined that those who would assume power after it would view them as flawed. Thus, in the latest episode of the "Brotherhoodization" of Egypt, as a society and as a state, there is news of a television channel showing during the month of Ramadan a drama series devoid of women, even veiled women, to assert that "it is possible to present drama that reflects reality with male actors alone and without any scenes of intermixing"!! Is this really the kind of freedom Egyptian men and women, who have paid with their blood the price of defending it, are willing to accept? Is this Egypt's open society, which for decades provided the Arab World with moderate models of culture, religion, and politics? Does anyone have the right to ignore half of their society by distorting the concept of women in Islam and denying their existence? Such denial is in tune with the campaign of "cleansing" waged by the Minister of Culture to abolish all that is cultural in his Ministry under the pretext of "liberating the Egyptian mind". This climate of terror has encouraged Egyptian Islamists to proclaim, in the Iranian style, a religious death sentence against German political author of Egyptian origin Hamed Abdel-Samad, because of a lecture he gave in which he criticized fundamentalists and the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in spreading "religious fascism". Thus, instead of responding with counterarguments and a different opinion, a "fatwa" requiring his execution was issued by Islamist figures represented in the government. This forced the German government to ask that its Egyptian counterpart clearly disassociate itself from such calls and declare that it would guarantee the safety and wellbeing of the author. The conclusion is that Islamists in the Arab Spring countries are behaving as if the power they have gotten their hands on shall not be shared with anyone, and will never again be held by anyone but them, just like those who were toppled by the revolutions used to think.
