Before the fire in the Middle East consumes us all


The toppling of elected president Mohamed Morsi through a coup affected the law and execution sentences. Egyptian courts sentenced 529 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that denounces the use of violence, to death, among them children. The justification of the court for this harsh ruling is, as every fascist regime.They were arrested for publicly protesting Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's blatant disregard of the national will of the Egyptian people. For using passive protest and use of their democratic rights in the face of police, military and paramilitary security forces that kill.It is a great pity that the international community remained silent over this court ruling where defendants were not even allowed the right to put forth an argument to defend themselves from the allegations.When considering the official statements, it is evident that neither Europe nor the U.S. cares about mass executions as much as they do about precautions taken in the realm of social media.Of course the Egypt example is not the one and only example of orientalism of the West and the U.S. The same attitude may be seen in a country where, to date, more than 100,000 civilians have been killed and millions forced to flee because of Syrian head of state Bashar al-Assad. The government in Damascus killed its own people using chemical weapons, and yet there is still no discussion of serious sanctions.The West and the U.S. are also insensitive on the matter of the millions of Syrian refugees. Turkey on its own is home to approximately a million Syrian refugees. European states that continually gloat about their wealth have only accepted 60,000 Syrian refugees to date. In light of these facts, people are asking questions.Is it not the U.S. and European states that belittle democracies in the Near and Middle East? In that case, why are they not more active in defending universal human values? If, as they claim, they want democracy to prosper in the region, then why do lend support to dictators and coups and not elected governments? Why are they aggressive in their criticism toward legitimate governments, and yet silent toward those who only appear democratic? Independent correspondent Robert Fisk, who has been covering the entire region for the past 30 years, has bravely been answering precisely these questions. Fisk claims that the U.S. prefers military governments to civilian ones: "For the U.S., it is easier to do business with soldiers and generals."Fisk explains the policy of France and the U.K. as well as other European states toward Syria as defined by Islamophobia.This prejudice of the West enables al-Assad to portray the Syrian opposition who is fighting al-Qaeda itself as fundamentalists.It is not right to judge entire continents, as well as the pragmatist and essentialist states, that govern them based on the populace of this geography. Indeed, there are people in the U.S. and Europe, just as in Turkey, who care deeply about human rights and democracy. Unfortunately, they do not constitute a dissent voice toward the orientalist governments for which they vote. Instead, they sit on their hands. Any protests condemning the deaths in Egypt or Syria held in an American or European city will be have a big impact on the region.Such a protest would not only send a strong message to the fascist coup plotters and dictators in the Middle East, it would also yield benefit them in the long term. The migration problem affecting Europe and all related issues or the threats toward the U.S. originate from the Middle East becoming unlivable. For a harmonious world, it does not take much to open the window and ask how your neighbors are doing.