FREE AT LAST?

This is a picture of Mohammed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire as a martyr for the Arab Spring.

Now ten months later, Tunisia turned out in HUGE numbers (70%) to vote for the very first time in a free election.

Bouazizi had an influence in his country.

GOT TUNISIA (in your mind)?  She's the red dot in northern Africa...Libya is to the right.  She joins the growing ranks of Arab countries which are now shed of repressive governments and dictators.

Of course, we're all wondering which way these nations will turn.  The released peoples have only known repression and they're pretty sure THAT'S not what they want.

Yesterday the "new" Libya touted radical Sharia law.  That lockstep conformity doesn't exactly smell like a whiff of freedom.  So what does the Muslim worldview call the individual (and then the nation) to desire?

THE INDIVIDUAL
Would Muslims consider turning the other cheek?  Loving/praying for their enemies?  Why not?  The missing element is forgiveness.  If they are not "free" from their sin, they are continually striving.  And there's no bridge to broken fellowship.  They hack off an arm for stealing and stone/behead for adultery/blasphemy.

Harsh religion that offers no internal power source...creates harsh people who may function best under "enforcers".

THE NATION

The Arab Spring nations have a clean slate in front of them to build governmental structure.  Will there be a Thomas Jefferson/John Adams who conceptualizes the Arab future?  We come from a democratic mindset that assumes the human heart yearns for freedom.  But how will Muslims know to structure something they've never tasted?

Meanwhile, Gilad Shalit was released home in Israel to a hero's welcome.  His pale/frail frame saluted Prime Minister Netanyahu with all his might.  Shalit might be compared to Bouazizi in that they both held national sway.  Bouazizi rallied Tunisians for an end to oppression; Shalit rallied Israel to remember why they are one.  It is not likely that either man got up one day and thought to himself..."today I will become a national symbol for my country".  The 24-year-old Shalit was bushwhacked @19 and held captive 5 years.  Bouazizi martyred himself @26.  Young patriots.

EVALUATING WORLDVIEWS
The West compares objective facts about free thought vs. compulsive thought such as is seen in the awarding of the Nobel prize.  Most know the prize is given to those who work for mankind's benefit in six areas of Literature, Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, Economics, and World Peace.

There are 1.4 billion Muslims in the world (20% of the world's population).  They have 9 Nobel prizes.  One Nobel prize went to Yasser Arafat for Peace.  Three others (two Medicine winners and one Chemistry winner) were not actually Muslims, but Arab Christians.

Of the 12 million Jews in the world (.2% of the population), there are 165 Jewish Nobel prize winners.  When thinking and expression are restricted, the results are stunted.  A free society allows soaring.

We live in an unprecedented time of openness in the Middle East.  Christ is showing Himself in dreams and visions just as Joel prophesied.  Can man throw a roadblock against such revelation?  How?  By declaring a no-dream zone?

God will not be limited in what He can do in the Arab Spring.  Let's pray that the opportunities for God's word would increase and prosper.

Isaiah said "the people who walk in darkness will see a great light".  Isaiah 9.2