ALLAH yestur... cause as Abbood said... there's a 'vague' of democratization in the world... and well at the time of the Prophet, leaders were not elected because how rich or how charismatic they were. They were chosen by the people because they had Iman in their heart and followed their religion... and when chosen, many of those leaders would just disapprove because they didn't want the leadership :) Now, anyone that's not elected, wants recounts because they think they are entitled to the power... :( ALLAH yeraje3 the Muslim ummah to how it was 2 centuries ago. :)

Abbood, I agree with you, we don't know what's hidden for us. All we know is there will be elections in Lebanon and we will select our leaders otherwise, this election will be false and we will go back to the streets! Now I also agree that this is not being supported by the west simply because they care about us, but really think about it, do we have a choise? We've been ruled by the same regimes since the end of world war 2!!! Why do you think we were so behind in everything?!!! We need a change, and we can't have that change without pressure from outside unfortunately...many people have tried before and I wish they were still here to tell you what happened to them.

talking about change, and democracy. Have you guys noticed something lately? the 'winds of change'? the wave of 'democratic' changes in the region: the overthrow of omar krami in lebanon because of demonstrations, the elections in iraq and afganistan, the elections in saudi arabia, the 'kfaya' demonstrations in egypt seeking mubara's resignation, what else? yeah the elections in palestine, the sort-of loosening up in syria.. is democracy really sweeping into our countries? will people truly self rule?

the quick answer to that is certianly not.. and we souldn't be any optimistic about it miky007. all what's happening is a pre-emptive move by the states to prevent the coming up of the islamic state inshallah. They have realized that all the rulers in the middle east server her purpose no more, so it decided to take care of things her way, either by direct military presence (ie iraq, afganistan) or by this whole democracy bullshit. it's trying to quell the anger and dissatisfaction of the muslim youth by these so-called democratic changes. but they're all fake, cause frankly if the ummah where given the choice to coose for real, they'd chose islam in heart beat.. algeria elections '92 anyone? people chose islam, but the west overruled that decision.. maybe becuase we're not mature enough to make our own decisions..
but all of those attempts by the US notwithstanding.. the khilfah will come back, it's Allah's promise.

I don't wanna sound over optimistic here, but I feel things are changing, atleast in Lebanon. For the first time in many years, people will choose...but they have to be very careful and choose wisely! The sad thing is this is the time when we really need someone like Rafik Hariri :(
Who knows, maybe Lebanon will play it's old role and help arabs in their fight for freedom, and who knows, maybe then we can all unite :)

I heard that Lebanon is sending "rade3" forces into Syria soon :-) j/k...

On a serious note it's sad how politics can mess up the perceptions of the masses!! we were all one area, one ummah before. May Allah bring his Ummah back together soon!

Good point Abdallah. These regimes are only strong on the people they rule, like a 15 year old guy play tough on an 8 year old guy... Only when the 20 year old guy shows up, the 15 yo Kaid bows down to him. Islam spread by conquering hearts and spreading peace, good manners and respect. No arabic country, no matter how "islamic" it pretends to be follows 1% of those principles. Instead, in Syria the regime makes you fear el-Assad more than God. Allahu Akbar.

leadership!? hehe quite funny... to be honest Miky007, I don't trust any arab leaders anymore... they are just backstabbers and hypocrites :) we need to unite ur right, but we need a GOOD leader who will lead with Islam and not the West's agenda :) ;) tx Miky for ur reply :)

Guys, no mater what happens, we and the syrians are brothers and sisters! Now if we wanna be united, we can have the same leadership(democratic one of course), not one country ruling the other!

yes it was indeed Concordia University :) what a day it was :) about the whole situation in Lebanon, it's just sad. I mean, if u would have asked me a couple of years ago whether or not I was happy about Lebanon's ruling, I would have told u, it's not, we need only Lebanese to rule us... but now that I know all our leaders are ... the ONLY way we'll live peacefully, is if we have the next Salahuddin liberating and governing us :)

salam
well i can't tell much from your profile Danzster but I think u're talking about university of Concordia, Montreal, Canada. You guys made us all proud there.. I don't know if u watched that documentary in cbc called 'discordian' or something.. it showed the details of that day.. but anyways

i just saw on the news that the Maronites in lebanon want the vacant position of chief of security or something like that to be filled by a maronite, when it was filled previously by a shiite! and then i don't know who said: no this can't be even though we fired those incharge of security (b/c of the opposition pressure as u know) the vacant tenures can only be filled with other people of the same sect..

this is true sectarniasm (did i spell it right?) at work. Truly the situation of the people in Lebanon is not even sectarniasm, it's 3asha2eri.. traibalism like the time of jaheleya before the prophet came in the arabian peninsula.. people fight to get a bigger part of the cake for their tribe, or in our case their sect..

so much for lebanese self rule and independence.. true independence will only happen when the whole ummah unite under the banner of islam in a true islamic state..

ur right Abbood... Israel, don't let me start... Netanyahu wanted to come to my university a couple of years ago and when the students wanted to prevent him from coming, they said 'freedom of speech' yet when Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights wanted to bring down a lecturer for the Palestinian cause from the States... Jews and Hillel did EVERYTHING for him not to come... but alhamduLILAH he still came :)

heh speaking about isreal, i couldn't believe that shalom guy (Isreali secretary of state) had the audacity to say that yeah Syria is an invader and it must leave lebanon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! like what the hell!! and no, even more, shimon perez is like yeah, hizbollah is an invader too!!!! and just piss u off is that no muslim official (or za3eem for that matter) even replied back!!! zul ma ba3du zul ya zalameh
and about lebanese ruling themselves.. frankly i don't have much faith in the labense ruling model in any more.. the fact that it is so sectarnian goes back to the way the constitution was made since day one.. a sectarnian country will never function properly
thanx for the reply though
salam

I'm split... because Syrian troops left... which will make it an easy target for Israel to come in... but at the same time happy cause it's about time Lebanon governs Lebanon and not Syria governing it :) DISCLAIMER: THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION. PLEASE DO NOT SAY I AM WRONG, CAUSE OPINIONS CHANGE... FACTS DON'T...