by Pat Franklin
Those in the Middle East crying out for democracy should think again. The U.S.A. is not a democracy, which the Founding Fathers called 'mob-ocracy'. The U.S.A. is a republic, which is a very different thing.
The American republic is based on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which lists our human rights and limits the government's power. The founders of America knew that democracy (rule by majority vote) was mob-ocracy. A republic is ruled by law, not by majority vote, which can be swayed by misinformation, emotion and greed.
When I was in grade school (the first eight years of schooling in America), every day began with the Pledge of Allegiance. The class and teacher stood up, faced the flag (at the front of every classroom), put our right hands on our hearts, and said together: 'I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'
The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, guaranteed our freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, right to bear arms, the right to trial by jury etc. On those pillars of freedom our country became the most free and the most mighty nation on earth.
I feel very sorry for the Egyptians and others in the Middle East fighting for more freedom. I am afraid that their few weeks of rampaging on the streets are the most freedom they will ever experience. The trouble is that their religion of Islam will never allow freedom. Islam would never allow the Bill of Rights in Egypt.
Those dark countries will go from dictatorship to the even worse dictatorship of Islamic tyranny. The people have shed their blood to oust the dictators, hoping that they will gain the freedom enjoyed in the West. But the West only has that freedom and prosperity because of the Christian gospel. And the tyrants of Islam will never allow the Christian gospel. The very word 'Islam' means submission, that every person must submit to the false god Allah. There will be no freedom in the Middle East while Islam is still around.