The martyr who sparked the arab revolution

You can see how the story of the life of this man has evoked such feeling..

"Tarek al-Tayyib Muhammad ibn Bouazizi (March 29, 1984 – January 4, 2011), known simply as Mohamed Bouazizi (Arabic: محمد البوعزيزي‎), was a Tunisian street vendor who burned himself to death on December 17, 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the humiliation that was inflicted on him by a female municipal official. This act became the catalyst for the 2010–2011 Tunisian uprising, sparking deadly demonstrations and riots throughout Tunisia in protest of social and political issues in the country. Anger and violence intensified following Bouazizi's death, leading then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down after 23 years in power.

Following Bouazizi's self-immolation, several other men have emulated this act in other Arab republics in an attempt to bring an end to the oppression they face from corrupt autocratic governments. Significant changes are happening in Tunisia and Egypt and as a result, they and Bouazizi are being hailed by some as "heroic martyrs of a new Middle Eastern revolution."[1]



Mohamed Bouazizi, who was known locally as Basboosa,[2] was born in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, on March 29, 1984. His father, a construction worker in Libya, died of a heart attack when Bouazizi was three, and his mother married Bouazizi's uncle some time later.[3] Along with his six siblings,[4] Bouazizi was educated in a one-room country school in a village named Sidi Salah.[5] Although multiple media outlets reported that Bouazizi had a university degree,[4][6][7] his sister, Samia Bouazizi, stated that he had never graduated from high school,[8] but that it was something he had wanted for both himself and his sisters.[5] With his uncle in poor health and unable to work regularly,[9] Bouazizi had worked various jobs since he was ten,[3] and in his late teens he quit school in order to work full-time.[9]

Bouazizi lived in a modest stucco home, a twenty-minute walk from the center of Sidi Bouzid,[10][11] a rural town in Tunisia burdened by corruption[12] and suffering an unemployment rate estimated at 30%.[13] According to his mother, Mannoubia Bouazizi, he applied to join the army, but was refused, and several subsequent job applications had also resulted in rejection.[9] He supported his mother, uncle, and younger siblings, including paying for one of his sisters to attend university, by earning approximately US$140 per month[9][5] selling his produce on the street in Sidi Bouzid. He was also working toward the goal of buying a work van, according to his sister Samia.

Local police officers had targeted Bouazizi for years, even during his childhood, regularly confiscating his small wheelbarrow of produce;[9] but Bouazizi had few options to try to make a living, so he continued to work as a street vendor. On the morning of December 17, 2010, he had contracted approximately US$200 in debt to buy his merchandise.[14][15] Soon after setting up his cart, the police confiscated his wares again, ostensibly because Bouazizi did not have a vendor's permit. However, although some sources state that street vending is illegal in Tunisia,[14][16] and that Bouazizi lacked a required permit,[5] according to the head of Sidi Bouzid's state office for employment and independent work, no permit is needed to sell from a cart.[12]

It was also claimed that Bouazizi did not have the funds to bribe the police officials to allow his street vending to continue.[5][17] Two of Bouazizi's siblings accused authorities of attempting to extort money from their brother,[12] and during an interview with Reuters, one of his sisters stated, "What kind of repression do you imagine it takes for a young man to do this? A man who has to feed his family by buying goods on credit when they fine him ... and take his goods. In Sidi Bouzid, those with no connections and no money for bribes are humiliated and insulted and not allowed to live."[18]

Regardless, Bouazizi was publicly humiliated when a 45-year-old female municipal official, F. Hamdi,[4][9][19] slapped him in the face, spat at him, confiscated his electronic weighing scales, and tossed aside his fruit and vegetable cart; all while her two colleagues assisted her in beating him.[20] It was also stated that she made a slur against his deceased father.[18] Her gender made his humiliation worse due to expectations in the Arab world.[21][4]

Angered by the confrontation,[22] Bouazizi went to the governor's office to complain.[14] Following the governor's refusal to see or listen to him, even after Bouazizi was quoted as saying "'If you don't see me, I'll burn myself'," he acquired a can of gasoline (or two bottles of paint thinner) and, at 11:30 a.m. local time (less than an hour after the altercation),[23] he doused himself in front of a local government building and set himself alight.[14][23]

According to Bouazizi's mother, who was not told of her son's intention before he carried out this act,[23] he committed suicide because he had been humiliated and not because of their poverty. "It got to him deep inside, it hurt his pride," she said, referring to the police harassment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi

In the muslim world, the concept of a martyr means much more than in european culture. To kill yourself in the cause of a principle generates much spiritual merit as it means you submit yourself to a greater thing.

Islam means submission.

This act has strong emotional and religious resonance.

What do other people think.

Comrade Stalin

This is how you end islam

think

comrade stalin the thinker

1 Corinthians 14:34

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but [they are commanded] to be under obedience, as also saith the law.

1 Corinthians 14:35

And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

It is not a mess.

It is a much needed revolution.

I hope it spreads to every arab country and severly rattles the cage that is Israel.

There are women in the streets in Cairo and praying alongside the men.

This religion that they have will give them the strength to boot the imperialists out.

Comrade Stalin

The Taliban is a creation of the US and Pakistani Intelligence working together to destablish an Afghani government that liberated women and implemented land reform.

As with most US political creations, it has eventually blown up in their face.

It is not about religion though you and the truly awful Fox News will do their best to make it such.

Comrade Stalin

I am a creative writer ( songs, poetry, filmscripts etc ) but do not need these skills in this case.

"...Although there isn't any evidence that the CIA directly supported the Taliban or Al Qaeda, some basis for military support of the Taliban was provided when, in the early 1980s, the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency) provided arms to Afghans resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the ISI assisted the process of gathering radical Muslims from around the world to fight against the Soviets.[9] Osama Bin Laden was one of the key players in organizing training camps for the foreign Muslim volunteers. The U.S. poured funds and arms into Afghanistan, and "by 1987, 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war."[10] FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, who has been fired from the agency for disclosing sensitive information, has claimed United States was on intimate terms with Taliban and Al-Qaeda, using them to further certain goals in Central Asia.[11]

The Taliban were based in the Helmand, Kandahar, and Uruzgan regions and were overwhelmingly ethnic Pashtuns and predominantly Durrani Pashtuns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban's_rise_to_power

Eek - Osama Bin Laden !!!

Comrade Stalin

No one said that and your appeal to emotion is obvious. Its kind of silly to attack the obvious sexism in one religion and not in the other. You cant pick and choose what parts of the bible you find acceptable and follow them. You forget so quickly that the bible advocates that you stone people publicly if you were found to have committed almost any sin. Your bible advocates slavery and says it is ok to beat your slaves. You cant selectively make criticism of one group and ignore what the other is doing.

sure you can they do it all the time...Just like how they have picked out things the Taliban did..and just applied it to the people in Egypt who are protesting for freedom and for real elections and reform...not protesting to form a Taliban state...because all Arabs and Muslims are the same...Just like how all Christians are just like the Westborgh Church.

What these short sighted people don't get is, the reason groups like the Taliban and Al Quida and other groups gain power in these nations...is that they can feed on the anger aimed at the Oppressive Governments with no means to effect change in them. These groups can then take that anger and turn it to militant Religion, or hate of west becuse those are places they can focus it with less problem...and the Corrupt leaders can enjoy as while the anger is really at them...its aimed at other places and they can hold there power.

The More Democracy we see...the more the calls for change and reform will fall on there own leaders...not on the west..who for now props up the oppressors.

Bald-faced lie.

Huge text dump alert

"Everybody must get stoned

For touching Mount Sinai

Whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death. Exodus 19:13

For taking "accursed things"

Achan ... took of the accursed thing. ... And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. ... So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Joshua 7:1-26

For cursing or blaspheming

And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him. Leviticus 24:16

For adultery (including urban rape victims who fail to scream loud enough)

If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city. Deuteronomy 22:23-24

For animals (like an ox that gores a human)

If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned. Exodus 21:28

For a woman who is not a virgin on her wedding night

If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her ... and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: And the damsel's father shall say ... these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. ... But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die. Deuteronomy 22:13-21

For worshipping other gods

If there be found among you ... that ... hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them ... Then shalt thou ... tone them with stones, till they die. Deuteronomy 17:2-5

If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers ... thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die. Deuteronomy 13:5-10

For disobeying parents

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother ... Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city ... And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die. Deuteronomy 21:18-21

For witches and wizards

A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:27

For giving your children to Molech

Whosoever ... giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. Leviticus 20:2

For breaking the Sabbath

They found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. ... And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones.... And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses. Numbers 15:32-56

For cursing the king

Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die. 1 Kings 21:10

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/stoning.html

and for many other sites

http://www.google.co.nz/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=bible stoning&aq=f&oq=

Comrade Stone'em

See Stalin's post and there are plenty more examples.

Pockets all democracy accomplishes is a trade of one tyrant (dictator, king, whatever the case may be) for millions of tyrants.

Stalin;s list doesn't compromise "almost everything" as was originally asserted. Once again, your reading comprehension problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_the_goalposts

Blatant fallacy.