Arab 'Winter' and the Euro 'Spring'

 

The Arab Spring is a term used to tag the wave of protests and civil unrest that swept the Arab world back in December 2010 when a street vendor in Tunisia, Mohammad Bouazizi set himself on fire when the police came to seize his vegetable stall after his failure in obtaining a permit to exercise. He furthermore faced harassment and humiliation by a municipal officer and her assistants.

 

He unfortunately set himself on fire as an open defiance against the autocratic regime, and this act of his was hailed by the West as a mighty sacrifice for democracy in the Arab world and he and those who followed his example to self-immolate themselves - nearly a dozen of them in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania – were granted such praiseworthy titles such as “heroic martyrs of a new North African and Middle Eastern revolution”. This was published in the New York Times, in the article “How a single match can ignite a Revolution” published on 21 January 2011 by Robert F. Worth.

 

This act which the world deemed as a sacrifice for democracy is in fact suicide which is highly condemnable in Islam. No matter how hard a situation may come upon man, he has no right to take the life which does not belong to him. This act of suicide may be deemed by the West as a heroic act but unfortunately it is not so! Islam encourages revenge as per the same degree of torture that one undergoes, reaffirming the Mosaic Law “an eye for an eye” but being more just and lenient in its application. Islam is the Best Model, the Middle Way, between the extreme and the laissez-faire. The leaders who don’t follow the tenets of Islam while proclaiming themselves as Muslim States are accountable in the worldly court of justice as well as the Divine Court of Justice, but no Muslim – I clear and firmly state – NO MUSLIM SHOULD EVER TAKE HIS OWN LIFE! No matter how hard a situation gets, Allah has forbidden His servant to take this satanic step towards self-destruction.