Did you know that Arabs are afraid to speak freely?

Some hopeful observations from Iraq:

I've been visiting the BBC Arabic site in the last few days and I found a forum where people from many Arab countries �including Iraq- post their opinions about some hot topics, the main of those is Iraq and terrorism of course. I wasn't surprised to see that most Arabs (especially from Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria) are forming one side of the debates while Iraqis and people from the rest of the gulf countries are taking the other side.. . . I feel that those people are still afraid to voice their points of view in public in such hostile atmospheres but the internet is providing them freedom and safety to say whatever they believe in.

We are trying to jumpstart an Arab Reformation. We don't know whether it will succeed or how long it will take, but freedom of thought and speech must be one of the most fundamental changes. Literacy will be another. No religion that keeps its adherents dumb and ignorant can really be considered divine. Nor should it have any coercive power.