Mr Cameron is correct with his opinion on democracy working in some Arab countries like Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia but absolutely no chance of it working or getting ahead start in the Middle East, especially the stinky rich oil Golf States and backward countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan....
Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the 23-year-old Afghan student journalist sentenced to death for downloading material from the internet? Mr Kambaksh’s crime was to distribute to his journalism class at Balkh university a document that commented on Koranic verses about women’s rights. He was condemned by an Islamic court for insulting Islam.
The Arab Golf states have forced Sharia law on their people and that has led to terrible, harsh injustices, and untold crimes against humanity. Sharia law intervenes in all spheres of private and public life. It is inimical to living in a democracy, as even its adherents accept.
Sharia law is the instrument by which Arab dictators seeks to control their own people. Whilst the Sharia may have been inspired by the Quran, it has been developed and evolved through time and through the efforts of very radical and extremist men who deplore liberty, freedom of speech and democracy.
Renaud Sarda
below is Mr Cameron article's...
- 'History is sweeping through your neighbourhood' says Cameron, echoing Macmillan's famous 'wind of change' speech
David Cameron today hit out at suggestions the Middle East 'can't do democracy' as change spreads across the Arab world.
He rejected the idea that 'highly controlling' regimes are needed to ensure stability as violence and protests continued in Libya.
He dismissed the idea that Arab or Muslim countries cannot cope with free and fair elections and said: 'For me, that's a prejudice that borders on racism.'
'Sweeping' change: David Cameron and Kuwaiti parliament speaker Jassem al-Khorafi hold a joint press conference
The Prime Minister declared 'history is sweeping through your neighbourhood' as he voiced 'cautious optimism' that popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East would not see the rise of extremism.
In a rare speech at the Kuwaiti parliament by a visiting foreign leader, the Prime Minister said the region was the 'epicentre of momentous change'.
He again condemned the 'appalling violence' which Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has unleashed against his own people while praising the bravery of the protesters seeking to assert their rights.
Echoing Harold Macmillan's famous 'wind of change' speech he said the world was witnessing historic scenes.
The former Prime Minister declared as decolonisation occurred across Africa: 'The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.'
Mr Cameron said today: 'History is sweeping through your neighbourhood not as a result of force and violence, but by people seeking their rights, and in the vast majority of cases doing so peacefully and bravely.
'Across the Arab world, aspirations are stirring which have lain dormant.
Rare: British PM walks with speaker al-Khorafi. It is uncommon for foreign speakers to address the Kuwaiti Parliament
UK-KUWAITI TRADE DEAL TO BE DOUBLED
The UK and Kuwaiti Governments today agreed to double bilateral trade and investment between the two countries to £4 billion by the year 2015.
The agreement, announced during the Prime Minister's visit to Kuwait, will lead to a task force being set up, chaired by ministers.
Speaking in Kuwait City today, the Prime Minister said: 'This is an important agreement that will pave the way for increased trade and investment between our two countries.
'Kuwait has an ambitious £90 billion development plan which involves more than 1,000 projects covering infrastructure, healthcare, housing and education.
'I want UK companies to be key partners on these projects that will bring jobs and growth to the British economy.'
Trade and Investment Minister Lord Green added: 'The new UK-Kuwait Trade and Investment Taskforce will create an important forum for both sides to identify new opportunities for partnership across a range of sectors and improve the business environment by tackling market access issues.'
Kuwait is currently the UK's fourth-largest trading partner in the Gulf, buying over £1 billion worth of exports a year.
'It is too early to say how things will turn out. Too often, in the past, there has been disappointment. But there are some grounds for cautious optimism.
'Optimism, because it is the people - especially the young people - who are speaking up. It is they who are choosing to write their history - and doing so for the most part peacefully and with dignity.'
Following his visit yesterday to Egypt, where demonstrators toppled the 30-year regime of Hosni Mubarak, Mr Cameron said that politics in the region had too often been seen as a 'false choice' between repression and extremism.
He said Western countries needed to understand that it was in their own interests to see basic rights established in the region.
'For decades, some have argued that stability required highly controlling regimes, and that reform and openness would put that stability at risk,' he said.
'So, the argument went, countries like Britain faced a choice between our interests and our values. And to be honest, we should acknowledge that sometimes we have made such calculations in the past.
'But I say that is a false choice. As recent events have confirmed, denying people their basic rights does not preserve stability, rather the reverse.
'Our interests lie in upholding our values - in insisting on the right to peaceful protest, in freedom of speech and the internet, in freedom of assembly and the rule of law.'
The Prime Minister rejected the so-called 'Arab exception' - the argument that Arab or Muslim countries 'can't do democracy'.
'For me, that's a prejudice that borders on racism,' he said.
The recent turbulence has forced Mr Cameron to shift the emphasis of his foreign policy agenda away from what he has called a 'messianic' push to bolster trade towards political reform.
Tour: Mr Cameron arrives at the Kuwait National Assembly. Yesterday he became the first foreign leader to visit Cairo after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarack
Prime Minister's address: The UK and Kuwaiti Governments today agreed to double bilateral trade and investment between the two countries to £4 billion by the year 2015
But, with 36 business leaders accompanying him on the trip, he insisted that the two - along with security - are closely linked.
'Yes, ours is a partnership based on a shared economic future as we need our economies to grow and diversify in this challenging globalised world,' he said.
'And yes, ours is a partnership to deliver shared security interests, not least as we confront the terrorist threat we face from extremists.
'But crucially, far from running counter to these vital interests of prosperity and security, I believe that political and economic reform in the Arab world is essential, not just in advancing these vital shared interests but as a long-term guarantor of the stability needed for both our societies to flourish.'
Earlier, Mr Cameron attended a ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Kuwait by international forces in the first Gulf War following the invasion by the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
He was joined by the then prime minister Sir John Major and the Kuwaiti prime minister Sheikh Nasser al Mohammed al Ahmed al Jabber al Sabah, as well as veterans of the conflict.
The Prime Minister paid tribute to the 47 British troops who died, saying: 'Their sacrifice is honoured not just today, but every day by all Kuwait have achieved as a nation and by all you will achieve in the future.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359438/Cameron-hits-prejudice-suggestions-Middle-East-democracy.html#ixzz1HM6ryCLs
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