When the Arab awakening broke out in Tunisia, followed by Algeria and Egypt, Western countries were worried about Islamic fundamentalism. Western publics were told that a new Iranian revolution was near, and the USA and EU did not openly support the insurgents against Tunisia's Ben Ali and Egypt's Mubarak, whose close connections with Western governments were widely known. Western countries then changed their approach just when it was quite clear that there were no means to stop the revolts and that the collapse of the two regimes would be inevitable. At the opposite, when uprisings broke out in Damascus and Tripoli, the majority of Western commentators and journalists did not mention a fundamentalist danger. However, in Syria and Libya, fundamentalist movements do threaten future freedom and democracy, because they provide considerable support to the insurgents against Bashar-Al-Assad and Gheddafi regimes. Probably it is not a coincidence that the Libyan revolt began in Cyrenaica, the eastern part of the country where opposition is mainly promoted by Muslim Brotherhood members and the Senussi, the same groups responsible for the 2006 Benghazi uprising that was brutally repressed by Colonel Gaddafi. Probably it is not a coincidence that in Syria the epicenter of the ongoing uprising is the city of Daraa, a fortress of the Islamic fundamentalists in the country, and Hama with its long history of conservatism. Western media not only did not focus on this, but they ignored pro-Assad demonstrations in Damascus and did not report that in Daraa –like in Benghazi– insurgents shot at the people, at the military and at firemen. The media made accusations against Assad's police completely. While Mubarak and Ben Ali were close allies to western countries, Gaddafi and Assad are not. This is the likely reason why Western governments and media are still ignoring connections between insurgents and fundamentalists. Libya and Syria, such as Egypt and Tunisia, need democratic reforms. The Arab awakening is a chance for democracy, social justice and human rights. But western countries should avoid supporting Islamic insurgents just to overthrow political enemies, because that could have side-effects: Syrians and Libyans could end up with even less justice of what they had before turmoil. Media here have an important role to play: to inform correctly and comprehensively international public opinion, setting the political agenda. BM
