Phares - The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East

A LSO BY W ALID P HARES

Future Jihad

The War of Ideas

The Confrontation

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Copyright 2010 by Walid Phares

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First Threshold Editions hardcover edition December 2010

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Phares, Walid, 1957

The coming revolution : struggle for freedom in the Middle East / by Walid Phares.

p. cm.

1. DemocracyMiddle East. 2. Jihad. 3. Islam and politicsMiddle East. 4. Middle EastPolitics and government1979 5. DemocracyAfrica, North. 6. Islam and politicsAfrica, North. 7. Africa, NorthPolitics and government21st century. I. Title.

JQ1758.A91P43 2010

956.05dc22 2010024620

ISBN 978-1-4391-7837-9
ISBN 978-1-4391-8049-5 (ebook)

To those whose company I was deprived of because of my choice for freedom...

And in memory of my father, Halim, and mother, Hindmy greatest inspirations and heroes, who, before they left us, raised me to appreciate justice and liberty.

As I stay behind, I have dedicated my life to speak on behalf of the weak and oppressed.

My thinking regarding this books subject has evolved over a span of thirty years as I observed the suffering and struggles of the oppressed in the Middle East. I want to thank each one of those freedom fighters, human rights activists, public figures, and courageous men and women who reached out to me, from Beirut to Washington, to relate their personal tales and the stories of their nations. Born and raised in Beirut, I witnessed the saga of many who wrote about freedom deprivation. Since I relocated to the United States in 1990 and adopted my new homeland, I tirelessly researched and published about the causes of freedom in the Greater Middle East, listening and interacting with dissidents and voices of courage whom I would like to thank for their sacrifices. They are too numerous to be listed.

I would like to thank Fox Newss leadership for trusting me to be the channels expert on Middle East affairs since 2006 and all my colleagues at the network for their support. Between 2004 and 2010, I was a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), whom I thank for hosting me professionally in Washington, D.C.

Over the years, Ive interacted with many journalists, show hosts, anchors, and producers in the mediain television, radio, and printboth in the United States and overseas, including MSNBC, CNN, France 24, Russia Today, Canada CTV, and others. Id like to thank them for giving me the opportunity to share my findings and analysis with the public. From the front lines of the battle of words I wish to cite the very courageous and relentless Lebanese Hamid Ghuriafi of al Siyassa, Syrian Nihad Ghadri of al Murarer, and Egyptian commentator Magdi Khalil.

Also to be acknowledged are the many lawmakers and their assistants with whom I worked for more than a decade in the U.S. Congress, the European Parliament, and other national assemblies around the world, officials and diplomats in the U.S., overseas, and at the United Nations, for their dedication to the battle of freedom. Although they are too many to list on this page individually, I particularly cite Prime Minister of Spain Jose Maria Aznar, Governor Mitt Romney, U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman and Rick Santorum, MEP Jaime Mayor Oreja, U.S. Congresswoman Sue Myrick, Canadian minister of Justice MP Irwin Cotler, Iraqi MP Mithal Alusi, Lebanese MP Nadim Gemayel, and UN special envoy Teri Rod Larson.

In the world of NGOs and human rights, I salute the efforts of dozens of leaders and activists I worked with who have dedicated themselves to raising the visibility of freedom struggle in the Middle East I must cite a few, such as Portuguese MEP Paul Casaca, as well as Tom Harb, and Rev Keith Roderick.

Id like to thank my relentless literary agent, Lynne Rabinof, whose encouragement and help made the project happen. I greatly thank my publisher, Simon & Schuster, in the person of Anthony Ziccardi, who valued the proposal and saw merit in it. I thank his entire staff, particularly Katharine Dresser and all those who were part of the technical, administrative, and legal stages of the production.

My deep thanks and appreciation to my editor, Kevin Smith, for his patience and dedication, as well as to other reviewers for shaping and sculpting the manuscript, transforming the first draft into a wonderfully flowing text.

Writing this book needed sacrifices by members of my closest circle in life. I thank the Commander and the Scholar for being willing to allow me to use our time. I owe them every day and hour of writing and editing I spent away from daily life and vacations. My best regards go to my sister, Liliane, my childhood coach, and to my brother, Sami, intellectual mentor during my teenage years.

This book and my writing career are in acknowledgment to my late parents, Halim and Hind, now together on the other side. Their sacrifices and love, basic ingredients for my education and passion for justice, made me understand the sufferings of people in past and current times. At times I regret the years of separation we experienced and I consented to so that I could think and express myself in liberty while they lived behind the wall of oppression. Now were all free, even though in two worlds, until we meet again.

Virginia, July 30, 2010

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, as terror strikes were widening from Manhattan to Mumbai and battlefields raging from Afghanistan to Iraq, many tough questions had yet to be answered: Where are the moderates in the Muslim world? Why do we hear only from the radicals? Is the Middle East really rejecting democracy? Do people in the region prefer the Taliban and Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhoods over liberals, feminists, and seculars? Or is this perception the work of the stronger, wealthier, dominant forces in the Arab and Muslim world who want us to believe that there is no hope that a war against the terrorists can be won and democracy will never take hold in the region?

In fact it is both, for the reality is that in this dangerous and critically important part of the world, there is a very explosive race going ona competition to the end between those who want to bring all countries from Morocco to Afghanistan under what they call a Caliphate or a totalitarian empire, and those who have been working feverishly to launch a revolution against this empire in construction. This is the untold story of a region that can be described as Middle Earth, in which the world has invested much hope and which could determine the future of the planet in the decades to come.