From the NYTimes: In the Mideast, No Politics, but God's

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/weekinreview/24shadid.html

Interesting article and analysis as always in the New York Times: So the fall of Nasser was the start of rising fundamentalism in the Muslim world.

Gone are the dreams of an "Arab nation" who would include all Muslim sects and the Christians (for after all, there are/were a lot of Christians in the Middle East, Christianity predates Islam...) gone the possibility for the Arab World to unite and, under an "Oumma Arabiya" banner,  ensur economical and social progress in the Maghreb, the Machrek and the Arabian Peninsula.


Instead, theocracy prevails under the banner of an "Oumma Islamiya". It argues that being less "nationalistic/ethnic" as it includes every Muslim from South East Asia, Middle East, Central Asia, North and Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe now, it has more legitimacy.  Except that theocracy is the death of democracy...

Until secularism prevails, the MidEast, and by extension, all of the "Oumma Islamiya", poses a risk for minorities living among them, for women and for social, economic and political progress.

In hindsight, the only ones to blame are the Western "democracies" who brought down Nasser and allowed for fundamentalism to take over secular societies in the MidEast.