ARAB SPRING IS IN TRUTH THE VICTORY OF MILITANT ISLAM

THE deepening cycle of violence in Egypt has exposed the gullibility and moral blindness of western leaders.

Earlier this year, as the so-called Arab Spring swept through the Middle East, politicians hailed the uprisings as the harbinger of a new era of peace and democracy.

The revolts were “an inspiration”, said President Obama. Others portrayed the events as the Arab equivalent of the Berlin Wall’s collapse. But today, almost a year after the insurrections first began in Tunisia, this stance appears increasingly foolish and misplaced.

The supposed spring is rapidly turning into a winter of conflict. The shadow of repression, chaos, and Muslim fanaticism now casts its darkening shadow across the region.

Much of the political elite’s noisy enthusiasm for change has been based on wishful thinking. It is the same kind of wilful reluctance to face reality that has brought us the ideological nightmares of European integration and mass immigration.

The British political class has been in a state of denial about the true nature of the Arab spring. In this case our politicians, eager to pose as global campaigners for freedom, have refused to recognise what is happening in the Middle East. For the Arab Spring is really about the ultimate victory of militant Islam, not the triumph of democracy. That is a real danger in Egypt. MORE