Most of the Arab world was fairly progressive from the 50s to 80s. Many Arabs used to work and study in Europe & North America, coming back to their home country with liberal and humanistic views about the world.
But after Saudi Arabia started getting rich through oil,& Iran's Islamic Revolution. We started working and studying in these countries, coming back with regressive Salafist and Khomeinist views.
Before the Lebanese Civil War, Islamists did not exist.
The left was very powerful & influencial
The Islamists started gaining popularity slowly, after the 9/11 incident. But significantly gained more after the Arab spring, they hijacked the secularist uprisings.
After the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian Armed Forces declared martial law, forcing young women with or without the hijab to undergo virginity tests, and if they weren't virgins they were tortured by being stepped on. them. The rate of sexual harassment has significantly skyrocketed, including perpetuation by police officers and military personnel. Sometimes a woman is raped and encircled by men.
Arab women back then used to wear skimpy clothes, bikinis and no one used to care about them, sexual harassment was taken much more seriously. The hijab was only popular with elderly women.
After Gaddafi's death, Islamists ruined Libya mostly Al Qaeda & Daesh.
Before the Syrian War and during it's civil uprisings phase, many people who took to the streets were secularists,liberals,socialists,communists,atheists,feminists,anarchists,centrists and anarchists, same for the Free Syrian Army, but then Islamic Terrorists hijacked the civil uprisings and armed rebellions making it become a full scale civil war.
Before the Iraq War, suicide bombers and sectarian tensions did not exist.
But after Saudi Arabia started getting rich through oil,& Iran's Islamic Revolution. We started working and studying in these countries, coming back with regressive Salafist and Khomeinist views.
Before the Lebanese Civil War, Islamists did not exist.
The left was very powerful & influencial
The Islamists started gaining popularity slowly, after the 9/11 incident. But significantly gained more after the Arab spring, they hijacked the secularist uprisings.
After the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian Armed Forces declared martial law, forcing young women with or without the hijab to undergo virginity tests, and if they weren't virgins they were tortured by being stepped on. them. The rate of sexual harassment has significantly skyrocketed, including perpetuation by police officers and military personnel. Sometimes a woman is raped and encircled by men.
Arab women back then used to wear skimpy clothes, bikinis and no one used to care about them, sexual harassment was taken much more seriously. The hijab was only popular with elderly women.
After Gaddafi's death, Islamists ruined Libya mostly Al Qaeda & Daesh.
Before the Syrian War and during it's civil uprisings phase, many people who took to the streets were secularists,liberals,socialists,communists,atheists,feminists,anarchists,centrists and anarchists, same for the Free Syrian Army, but then Islamic Terrorists hijacked the civil uprisings and armed rebellions making it become a full scale civil war.
Before the Iraq War, suicide bombers and sectarian tensions did not exist.
Quote:What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011
