A wave of revolutions have taken place across the Middle
East, and in their wake, a lot of people are asking what sort of government do
they want to see. Unfortunately, a lot of the people asking these questions are
neither from nor based in the Middle East. Westerners feel the need to meddle
with these newly emerging regimes and shape them according to their own
personal bias.
Recently in Egypt the democratically elected Islamist
president was ousted by the military and a new government is being formed. In
Syria the process of overthrowing the old regime is still going on and the
opposition groups are becoming increasingly fractious. They are divided along
religious and ideological lines mainly in their views of what the new Syria
should look like. Iraq and Libya are facing the same problems of spreading
sectarian violence.
In the UK bloggers are pontificating over what people far
removed from them should do. Mainly they talk about which factions the UK should
support. Religion is frequently a factor in this as it is divisive across the
Middle East. The growing conflict between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims for control
of certain countries is well documented, however, other groups such as Alawite
Muslims in Syria stand to gain to lose depending on what form of future
government rules there. The Middle East is also home to a lot of Christians,
especially in Egypt where Christians make up ten percent of the population and are worried about the implications of an Islamist
government. Syria also has a sizeable Christian population (again around ten percent of the population) who have similar concerns as Sharia law spreads amongst the rebel groups.
Recently the Catholic Herald wrote an article in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and criticising the UK's support of the Syrian opposition. Conservative
Christian bloggers were quick to point out that Christians were better
protected under Assad's brutal Ba'athist dictatorship, which is secular, than
they would be under an Islamist government. This was accompanied by a chorus of
support for the Middle East's secular regimes. It seems that Conservative
Christian bloggers support secularism in the Middle East but have a different
attitude to the UK where they are deplore the “aggressive secularism” of the
British government in its plans to legalised gay marriage. The hypocrisy of
this is beyond belief. I do not see how you can justify supporting a dictator
who uses chemical weapons against his own population whilst criticising a
government's attempts to extend equal rights to all its citizens. I assume the
fact that chemical weapons are not mentioned in the Bible as sinful makes the
Syrian government more righteous than the British one. According to certain
Conservative Christian bloggers, secularism in the Middle East is the best form
of government - even if it comes couched in brutal military oppression - but in
the UK secularism threatens to undermines the basic values of the family.
Another claim of Conservative Christian bloggers is that the
UK is a Christian country and that government policies should encourage
Christian values. In reality only 13% of people identified as being members of the Church of England in the last census. Congregation numbers are falling across the UK and many
Churches are left without a folk. They can hardly be representative of a silent
majority of British citizens who want the British government to enforce
Christian values. Still, Conservative Christian bloggers assert that the UK is
a Christian nation and the government should reflect this. In the Middle East,
the majority of the population not only identify as Muslims but actively
practise the religion, and want their governments to match the demographic make
up of their nations. Especially in some countries where years of military rule
has enforced secularism to prevent an Islamic uprising. Mohamed Morsi was democratically
elected as an Islamist leader by the population of Egypt. The West preaches
democracy and then complains about the outcome when the Middle East takes up
the mantra. Conservative Christian bloggers would prefer secular regimes in the
Middle East (secular Middle Eastern regimes only come in the aggressive kind)
despite the wishes of the population for a government that reflects their
values. Again this hypocrisy is staggering. The UK can barely be described as a
Christian nation beyond that the fact that we have an established church that
is heavily in decline due to overwhelming Christian apathy. However, according
to Conservative Christian bloggers the UK government should adopt Christian
values (despite widespread support for gay rights and a woman's right to
choose) while the Middle East must have aggressive secular regimes despite what
the people of these countries want.
Hypocrisy among Conservative Christians bloggers is nothing
new, but this latest wave of hypocrisy is surprising and I advise Conservative
Christian bloggers to look at the difference between what they desire in the
Middle East and desire here at home. It's hard to claim to be the voice of
morality when you clearly endorse whatever is best for your own group above the
needs and wishes of the general population. If Conservative Christian bloggers
do not like the aggressive secularism of the British government then I invite
them to live under the Assad regime and see what really aggressive secularism
is like before telling Middle East countries what they should do.
