Roger Cohen's "From Oklahoma to Tobruk": Again Time to Remove the Rose-Colored Glasses

The following blog entry, which was submitted as an online comment in response to Roger Cohen's op-ed, "From Oklahoma to Tobruk", was censored by The New York Times:

In a New York Times op-ed entitled "From Oklahoma to Tobruk" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/25/opinion/25iht-edcohen25.html), Roger Cohen, writing from London, concludes:

"The Arab world has embarked on a very long road to enfranchisement. It will be tempestuous but the direction taken is irreversible."

This is the same Roger Cohen who told us that Iran is "not totalitarian".

This is the same Roger Cohen who told us more recently in "Hosni Mubarak Agonistes" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/opinion/04iht-edcohen04.html) that the Muslim Brotherhood is "scarcely a band of fanatics". Cohen forgot to mention that Yusuf Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, claimed that the Holocaust was divine punishment of the Jews, defended the Iranian fatwa demanding the death of Salman Rushdie, and promoted a “day of rage” against cartoons of Mohammed printed in Sweden and Denmark. Qaradawi has defended female genital mutilation and supports the death penalty for those who abandon Islam.

What Cohen still doesn't understand is that the current upheaval is not about democracy, but rather about haves and have-nots, and crushing poverty, which cannot improve owing to a spiraling birth rate.

Democracy and enfranchisement? Sure, I hope it comes to the Muslim Middle East. And if and when it comes, I hope it will also include:

- women;
- Kurds;
- Copts;
- Baha'is;
- homosexuals.

May there be an end to "honor killings" and the stoning of women accused of adultery. May there be an end to the hanging of homosexuals. May there be an end to the brutal persecution of Kurds, Copts and Baha'is.

Enfranchisement of all in the Muslim Middle East? Sorry, Roger, but it's not in the cards. Again time to take off your rose-colored glasses.