Recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa have become a sociopolitical tsunami which is rapidly engulfing the geographic area of the Islamic civilization.

And there are a number of common points in these developments in the Middle East and North Africa.
The most important common point is the fact that all these nations are experiencing an Islamic awakening, which is manifesting itself in demonstrations after Friday prayers and widespread protests at mosques and Islamic centers.
Almost as important is the presence of a new generation of youth at the heart of these Islamic liberation movements.
And then there is the participation of Arab and Muslim women wearing hijab, whose social role in many Arab countries was severely restricted in the past.
Another interesting phenomenon is the symmetry between the Islamic resistance of these societies and their democratic demands.
The aforementioned developments have led to the dawn of a new paradigm in the Middle East, which is clearly evident in various areas.
In a commentary recently published in The New York Times, Martin Indyk expresses deep concern over the critical situation the Saudi government is in. The former U.S. ambassador to Tel Aviv, who was one of the architects of the United States’ dual containment policy toward Iran and Iraq, warns that Saudi Arabia’s neighboring countries, especially Yemen, Bahrain, and Jordan, are facing serious challenges from popular uprisings. Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who was the Saudi ally in the region, can longer help Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, once the backyard of the Saudis in the region, now has a democratic government with proportional representation of the Shia majority.
Indyk expresses approval of U.S. President Barack Obama’s strategy of balancing oil prices by supporting the House of Saud and turning a blind eye toward the crackdown on the Shias of Bahrain. However, he is concerned that neither Obama’s remedy nor the Saudi king’s multibillion dollar package for the country’s citizens can solve the problem.
He believes that the popular uprisings in the Middle East have reached a critical mass and are unstoppable, and thus supporting efforts to establish systems of constitutional monarchy would be the best strategy for the U.S. and its allies in the Persian Gulf.
Many Muslim commentators say that Western officials have been unable to properly analyze recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa because they do not have a correct understanding of the nature and essence of the Islamic awakening in the region.
The United States and other Western countries have always ignored the people for the past few decades because they had absolute trust in the power of the Arab rulers.
As a result, regional leaders are in confusion about how to deal with these revolutions, which is best exemplified in the Bahraini government’s crackdown on the opposition. The government in Bahrain is directly implementing the Westerners’ plans, in a manner similar to what Israel has been doing for many years. The firing of workers who dare to protest, night raids on the homes of Shias, arrests, torture, sometimes resulting in grotesque deaths, inquisitions, the rape of women and young girls, and the desecration and destruction of mosques and other religious sites are some of the manifestations of the implementation of the U.S. and British instructions.
The new paradigm of the Islamic awakening is already institutionalized, and if the government of the Al Khalifa ruling family in Bahrain wants to regain its lost legitimacy, they must respond to the peaceful demands of their people.
Any government that follows the Westerners’ orders will not have a place in the new Middle East.
Hossein Amir Abdollahian is the director general of the Persian Gulf and Middle East Affairs Department of the Iranian Foreign Ministry.