As a result of Arab Spring, less religious freedom

“At the onset of the Arab Spring in late 2010 and early 2011, many world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, expressed hope that the political uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa would lead to greater freedoms for the people of the region, including fewer restrictions on religious beliefs and practices. But a new study by the Pew Research Center finds that the region’s already high overall level of restrictions on religion – whether resulting from government policies or from social hostilities – continued to increase in 2011.”

http://www.pewforum.org/2013/06/20/arab-spring-restrictions-on-religion-findings/#_ftn3

And on September 12 Obama continued partying

“About a half-hour after militants overran the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last month [that would be September 11, 2012 a date everyone should have been prepared for], the State Department notified officials at the White House and elsewhere that the compound was “under attack” by about 20 armed assailants, e-mails obtained by The Washington Post on Wednesday show.”

Washington Post

“But in the following days, [Jay] Carney maintained there was no evidence suggesting the attack was "planned or imminent."

The administration also suggested that an anti-Muslim video produced in the United States likely fueled a spontaneous demonstration in Benghazi as it had in Cairo, where the U.S. Embassy also was attacked.” [It didn’t just suggest it—it trumpeted it inflaming emotions in Muslim countries, and arrested the film maker who is still in jail.]

CNN

The White House is doing everything it can to make it look like they were in control, that they knew, but that information/intelligence was mixed.  Not so.  They watched in real time—someone had to send the drone that filmed it.

It’s a huge cover-up, not just a cover-up of how little control they have there, but the cover-up of the pipeline of arms from Syria to al-Qaeda.  Our guns.  Another Fast and Furious.  The U.S. government is a gun runner, and our own people are being killed due to the incompetence of this administration.

I thought Hillary was doing a pretty good job

until she came up with this question:

Today, many Americans are asking – indeed, I asked myself – how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction? This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be.

Really?  Is that what we were asking? Does anyone outside the delegates in Charlotte who screamed to take God out of the party and hand over Jerusalem really think what the world got after Arab Spring (fundamentalist Muslim tyrants) was better than what it had before (secular Muslim tyrants)?

Complicated?  It was the anniversary of 9/11.  You guys had been reviewing gleefully the death of Osama bin Laden as the high point of a flat presidency.

Don’t go all girly on us, Hil.

About that Arab Spring --taking women back, way back

"Although the 1979 revolution in Iran is often called an Islamic revolution, it can actually be said to be a revolution of men against women. Before the revolution, women's rights were recognized to some extent. But the revolution led to the enactment of numerous discriminatory laws against women.

After the revolution—even before drafting a new constitution or establishing parliament—the revolutionary councils changed the laws. When I first read the Islamic Penal Code instituted after the revolution, I couldn't believe my eyes. The drafters of this document had effectively taken us back 1,400 years. . .

I hope that in the Arab countries where people have risen against dictatorships and overthrown them, they will reflect and learn from what happened to us in Iran. My recommendation to Arab women is to focus on strengthening civil-society institutions and to familiarize themselves with religious discourse, so they can demonstrate that leaders who rely on religious dogma that sets women's rights back are doing so to consolidate power."

At today's Wall Street Journal