You raise an interesting point

Submitted by sara (United States), Mar 10, 2013 at 18:41

Chad, of course these 'uprisings' are not all comparable in circumstance and context, but your comment raises the important phenomenon that is mirrored in western countries. I tend to look at the impact of Islamists in western countries based upon the percentage of the Muslim population (once there is over 10 percent, the cries of Islamophobia subside, and the islamist political ambitions etc come to the fore). Someone once made a very telling chart illustrating this in each country.

My comparison now extends to the makeup of each Muslim (dominated) country, i.e. the chart can be extended on the other side (with the one side being a 1 percent or less of Muslim population, to the highest). After the highest percentages are reached, it becomes useful to look at the breakdown of sects within the Muslim population. In a country where the sects are too even, more trouble within (See Lebanon, Syria, etc). So that adds a new dimension to the political Islamists. Having the Alawis, Sunni and Shia being as split as they are, insure that there will be no resolution without great military force. We cannot depend upon them to come to agreement anytime soon.

That said, in regards to your point about Assad being an exception, I think it becomes a choice between a Shia led (Iran) vs a Sunni (Muslim Brotherhood) led Syria. Neither are good choices. This proves that the secular dictators (Mubarak, Ghadaffi) were in the end the lesser evil. Unfortunately, as we have seen in Iraq and other examples, even a 30 percent non-Sunni ensures nothing. You are assuming that the US will arm and support them? What of Iran then?

The Russians are still a very important presence amongst both Islamic dictatorships and terror orgs (see recent info that AQ uses Russian technology against our drones). They are still of the impression that they are a major player on the world stage, and in fact by supporting the enemies of the US< they achieve that goal.

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