iknowexactly said:
However, when the children are growing up, it seems they want countries to liberalize to improve economics. I don't know how popular the Ayatollahs are with Iranian teenagers...?
I think this is a very American attitude, which is not correct.
Americans assume that everyone all over the world values freedom and democracy as we understand them, and that if they don't have freedom and democracy, that they want to achieve it and are being held back by someone.
In Iran, I don't think this is true. Younger generations could possibly be more islamist than older generations. Islamic governments all throughout the middle east are becoming more and more popular.
Sadam was secular. Qadafi was secular. Bashar Al-Asad is secular. Mubarak was Secular.
Yet these governments are falling, and in their place are rising more islamic governments.
It's often noted throughout the Arab world that many of the older generation are actually more secular, liberal and western. Those who lived during the pan-arabism movement and believed in Arab Nationalism and Arab Socialism.
But those forces are dying out, islamic government is coming to be more and more popular, not in spite of the young, but in many cases because of it.
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