[lancer]

Fear of violence and/or the necessity of dealing with violence are key factors in hampering reform in most Arab states.

And the terrorists damn well know it, as they are demonstrating in Iraq.

[GSlob]

Arabity. A society organized on tribal and sectarian basis cannot fail to be a failure under contemporary conditions. This social structure [more or less] sufficed and worked about a 1000 years ago when the challenges were qualitatively different. Oman, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, which Taheri lists as working societies, are small and weak and survive on sufferance.