I’m fed up with the hypocrisy, it’s all around me, arggghhh. Anyway the dreadful attack in France of course shocked the majority of us, a terrible attack carried out by Islamist extremists. My question is, why were so many western citizens willing to support Islamist extremists in Libya and Syria? It’s simply not good enough to me that a sizable minority of people here in the west thought it was just fine to support groups with ultra conservative fundamentalist Islamic beliefs in Libya and Syria and laud them as being ”freedom fighters” while they now want to throw the baby out with the bath water over what happened in France.
In Libya and Syria the governments there were dealing with people of the Kouachi brothers’ mindset, though the difference was they weren’t just dealing with two of them, they were dealing with thousands of them (and they still are). Though people here in the west jumped on the biased western media bandwagon and started lauding these ultra conservative Islamist fellas in Libya and Syria as ”heroes” and ”freedom fighters”. I could see at the time that it was pathetic and wrong and that the ideals of these people were in opposition to our progressive ideals in several different ways.
What has the result been? Well Libya is now lawless in most parts, rebel groups that were lauded as ”freedom fighters” by westerners have been accused of crimes against humanity (by the UN) and ethnic cleansing which still goes on to this day. Leaders of the NTC in Libya turned a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing and I have evidence of that. There is no doubt that the situation of the majority of people in Libya today is worse than it was five years ago (a year before the civil war). Though so many westerners were only too happy to support the fueling of one side of that Civil War without caring about the consequences of that action. They were only too happy to get caught up in a biased media frenzy which labelled these extremists as being ”plucky rebels”. The facts are the majority of these rebel groups held a more regressive worldview than the Libyan regime that was in place at the time, that the majority of these rebels held views which were more at odds with our own than the Libyan regime of the time.
It was much the same case in Syria. Western governments, western media outlets and a sizable cohort of western citizens were only too happy to put their support behind ”rebels”. The majority of the rebels in Syria again were people who held fundamentalist Islamic beliefs (considered extreme by western standards). The majority of these rebels in Syria that were backed by many westerners want to create a more regressive Islamist based society than the largely secular state that is in place in Syria currently. Many westerners seem to have no problem in supporting Islamist extremists in the Middle East.
The regime of Gaddafi was far from perfect, the regime of Assad is far from perfect. Though are you seriously telling me these rebel folks in Libya have made Libya a better place? Are you seriously going to tell me that Libya is better off today than it was 5 years ago, that the majority of Libyans are better off now? The same goes for Syria, are you seriously going to tell me that the rebels in Syria, the majority which hold extreme fundamentalist Islamic beliefs would make Syria a better place for the majority of Syrians?
Too many westerners were willing to support people who held views completely opposed to their own progressive views here.
There seems to be a case in the west that Islamist extremism is alright so long as it’s consigned to the Middle East, that Islamist extremist fighters are ”plucky rebels” and ”freedom fighters” when they’re fighting against a regime. Islamist extremism needs to be opposed wherever it raises its head.
Islamist extremism should be opposed whether it raises its head in Libya, Syria, France or anywhere else.
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