Yemen has a popularly elected leader; it’s a modern nation that is opening up to the world.
Yet Yemen has a well-earned reputation as a haven for Islamic militants. Let’s not forget that Yemen was the scene of attacks on a U.S. warship and a French tanker.
Yemen may have aspirations to becoming a true democracy, but Islam and democracy are incompatible.
If only George W. Bush would grasp the truth of this maxim. Iraq will NEVER achieve anything remotely resembling a democracy, the sooner we leave that Islamic hell hole the better.
Proof that Yemen is not a free society:
A brave Yemeni newspaper editor has been sentenced to a year in prison for reprinting the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
From the Associated Press:
“Kamal al-Aalafi, the editor, said the verdict “takes Yemen back to totalitarian rule, contradicts freedom of expression, and represents a real violation of democracy and freedom of the press.
The court that handed down the sentence also ordered the closure for six months of al-Aalafi’s Al-Ra’i al-Am independent weekly and forbade the editor from writing for the same period.”
I don’t expect the New York Times editorial page to protest this outrage against a free press – after all this is the same newspaper that was too cowardly to publish the Danish cartoons.
But I trust that bloggers and Internet writers will come to the defense of Kamal al-Aalafi.
