This post is not to excuse the barbaric murder of David Haines a person who had gone to Syria to help those who were in need, by the Unislamic State, nor the other acts that extremists have engaged in, but to explain some of the reasons that such evil twisted people justify what they do.
Most of us in the west, love living in a democracy. Despite the views of the EDL and other extremists, this love and respect for democracy includes Muslims living here as well as in other nations as well. The problem is that many of us are not aware of how the actions of government agencies in the west have undermined democracy in the across the world. And here are a few examples.
March 1949 Syrian coup d'état - elected Syrian President overthrown in a coup backed by the CIA
1953 Operation Ajax - overthrow of elected Iranian leader by the UK and the USA over oil to instal the Shah
1954 Guatemalan coup d'état - Operation PBSUCCESS where the CIA was involved in the overthrow of an elected government to instal a dictator
1964 Brazilian coup d'état - overthrow of a democratic system to a dictatorship which was then supported by the US
1973 Chilean coup d'état - overthrow of a democratic government, installation of a dictator who was supported by the US and the UK
1976 Argentine coup d'état - a coup that the US knew was planned before of and did nothing to stop allowing human rights abuses to take place supporting the government rather than working for democracy
1979 South Korea - continued support by the west for South Korea after a military coup overthrew a democratic government
1980 Turkish coup d'état - overthrow of a democratic government by the US backed military
1983 Supporting Saddam - the west helped Saddam despite his use of chemical weapons
1984 Rejection of elections in Nicaragua - despite internationally recognised elections, the US supported the right wing terrorists, the Contra's
1991 Gulf war - installation of Sheikh Jaber III as unelected ruler of Kuwait after its liberation from Iraq
1999 Pakistan - support for the military dictatorship in Pakistan (though this was mainly after the attacks of 2001)
2007 Gaza - Support to overthrown a democratic government in Gaza as it is not in keeping with the ideals of the west
2009 Afghanistan - continued (though admittedly reluctant) support for Afghanistan after electoral fraud returned the president.
2009 Palestine - support for Mahmoud Abbas continues after his democratic mandate expires with no new elections
2011 Bahrain - continued support for an unelected leader despite wide spread protests being put down with violence when those protests are supported in other nations
2013 Egypt - support for the military as they overthrew a democratic government though hopefully, free and fair elections will happen this year
There have been times when the excuse for backing one regime or another was that it was, over all, the least worse option due to the fight against communism etc, the most recent example being in Egypt. But, when you look at the examples, it does not look that we really do support democracy. The terrorists in the Middle East are wrong to do what they do. Terrorists who use a perverted interpretation of Islam forget that Muslims do make a difference with democracy in the west. But we in the west need to do more to show all faiths and political views in the world that we really do respect democracy.
