Unrest Continues in the Muslim World: Iran, Yemen and Bahrain
Freedom (onesmallvoice.blogspot.com)
Protests spark in the entire Arab world after the president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak resigned his office and apparently went to Germany where he is said to be in a deep coma, struggling for survival.
After the resignation, the Egyptian military took over and the government was sacked, while the parliament was dissolved, and amendments to the Constitution are expected before new elections. A referendum on Constitution was promised to be held within two months.
Life in Egypt seems to return to normal just like the army had asked, and the memory of Mubarak seems to fade away, except perhaps the rumors about his estimated wealth, which some are working out a way to bring back and put it to public service.
However, if Egypt has found its peace and the revolution was successful against all odds, the example sprang to the other nations in the region, which have their own totalitarian presidents to deal with.
Revolt in Algeria (thestarphoenix.com)
Over the weekend people in Algeria protested against president Bouteflika, and on Monday demonstrators took it to the streets in Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, protesting their regimes. An Algerian minister played down on Paris on Monday the significance of the demonstrations in Alger.
In Iran, the only non-Arab Muslim country confronted with such unrest, situation is bizarre, to say the least, since both Islamist power and the opposition manifested on Friday in favor of the protesters in Egypt and expressed their joy at the ouster of Mubarak, for different reasons, of course.
The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted on Friday, during the rally that marked the 32nd anniversary of revolution in Iran, that he was the one who inspired the movement in the Arab world, and the one behind it, and that a new Islamic Middle East would be shaping, without American influence or Israeli in it.
All the while, the security forces had arrested the opposition leaders who had prepared rallies of support. “Whoever
Protests in Iran (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
wishes to support demonstration against Mubarak can join the governmental rally on Friday,” security forces said.
As soon as the regime in Cairo was deposed, Iranians thought it was the time for them to protest their own regime.
So, opposition wanted to take it to the streets of Tehran, while the government is making sure that the demonstrations do not escalate like those surrounding elections in 2009, thus denying their right to organize a rally.
The opposition leaders Mirhussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi defied the governmental ban, and called people to rally.
The ayatollah Khomeini called the regime changes in Egypt and Tunisia an “Islamic awakening,” while the opposition call them similar to their protests in 2009.
Strange thing is that 32 years ago, on the same date Mubarak left Cairo and the power, the shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was arriving in Cairo after being deposed by the Islamic revolution.
In Bahrain, small clashes erupted in two villages, and 14 people were injured in what was called “the Day of Rage” by the protesters.
Protests in Bahrain (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Here the protests have a sectarian touch, given that a Sunni family rules over a Shi’ite majority.
Bahraini activists asked on Monday the people to protest in civilized ways for a promising future for themselves and their children.
The demonstrators are organizing on the websites Facebook and Twitter, following the successful pattern in Tunisia, and Egypt, and it is believed that the big test will be if the Shi’ites can mobilize to take hold of the capital Manama, where demonstrations are not very often staged.
Bahrain is the first oil-rich Arab nation to be hit by the wave of change, mostly because, unlike other similar countries in the Persian Gulf, it does not spend too much on social security, and the difference of religious denomination between the people and the al-Khalifa royal house makes it the most vulnerable country in the area.
Now the royal family is determined to invest 417 million dollars in social items in an attempt to ease things down.
From the oil-reach Bahrain, the unrest moved to the south of the Arabian Peninsula, to Yemen, the poorest Arab
Protests in Yemen (katu.com)
country, decimated by sectarian movements to both north and south, and confronted with heavy al-Qaeda linked terrorist activity.
Not to mention a president who has been in office a long time, and who is no longer wanted by the people, who demanded his ouster in the streets on Monday.
The demonstration on Monday was similar to that two weeks ago in Cairo, when “presidential supporters” appeared out of thin air to beat demonstrators senseless, only to disappear again soon after.
Supporters and protesters of president Ali Abdullah Saleh threw rocks at each others and clashed in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen.
Police took position between the rival lines to protect the people from hurting each other, while the people who wanted Saleh out were saying there was no other way than to see him go, and demanded the release of the activists arrested the previous weeks.
Yemenite revolt is as old as that in Egypt, and up to a point it followed the same “procedure,” in the sense that the president promise not to run for another term, measures to ensure a better life standard have been promised and supporters of the president fought those who wanted him out.
Still, the unrest in Yemen is not considered yet by analysts as serious as the one in Egypt, but seems to be so for the president Saleh, who cancelled a trip to Washington because of the tensions.
In the meantime, Israel is bracing itself for a new era in the region after voices have been heard in Egypt, both pro and con, to the upholding of bilateral treaties, a president hopeful demanding the renegotiation of the Camp David Accords, signed in 1978.
The army, who took over in Egypt, expressed its willingness to continue the same type of relation with Israel, but the Muslim Brotherhood, who backed up Hamas for years, are not so eager to follow suit, and are seen as a very important actor in the future elections, in spite of Barack Obama‘s reassurances that they would not play a major role in the next elections.
Israel fears that with a powerful Muslim Brotherhood playing a political role in Egypt the country would become a playground for their sworn enemy, Iran.
