Protests in the Middle East are rarely both large and spontaneous at the same time, although often it will appear that way. The same holds for the printing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohemmed in a Danish newspaper, in which it appeared that many of the Muslim protestors took the same streets, bought and burned hundreds of readily available Danish flags, and were ready and willing to torch European embassies. All at the same time. Obviously, it has come to be shown since then that incitement and organization had been prepared for some time by a Danish imam, followed by permitted violence in Syria and Iran.

With the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas beginning to grab ahold of some levers of power, it may be no wonder that Islamists groups are getting bolder in their attempts to gain more of it.

In Pakistan, the largest riots yet have gone underway and they only promise to get worse. This International Herald Tribune article notes that tens of thousands of protestors got out of control and began to torch buildings. Official opposition parties and Islamist groups are taking advantage of this by putting pressure on Dictator-in-Chief Musharraf. It’s the radical Islamists, who have the biggest foothold of support in the population, who are the ones who stand to benefit the most. So it’s no wonder that they’re the ones organizing it.

LAHORE: The chain of violent incidents across the city on Tuesday was orchestrated by a group of trained young activists of religious organisations, sources in intelligence agencies and the religious groups told Daily Times. They said that the activists belonged to Al-Dawa Students Organisations, which is affiliated to Jamaatud Dawa (formerly known as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is officially banned in Pakistan), Islami Jamiat Talaba and Shabab-e-Milli, groups affiliated to Jamaat-e-Islami. The sources said that ten groups of at least 35 men each carried out most of the violence, including burning and ransacking buildings, across Lahore. The main group travelled around in a maroon jeep and motorcycles and most of its members had long hair, beards and were clad in commando uniforms. The Jamaatud Dawa flag hung from the jeep and motorcycles. All of them were trained and many were summoned to Lahore from other cities, the sources said. They were armed with petrol bombs, firecrackers, small weapons and a chemical fire accelerant. The main group was spotted at incidents of violence near a KFC restaurant on The Mall, the Punjab Assembly, a Mcdonald????????s on Egerton Road and Metropolitan Bank. Lahore police started a crackdown based on intelligence information on Tuesday night and detained hundreds of the activists, the sources said.

Aww, poor Musharraf! I’m not exactly a sympathizer of dictators, but a Pakistan overrun by Islamic radicals wouldn’t be good for anyone. However, the blame has to go on him. The only reason that people sympathize with this kind of opposition is because Musharraf represses people both economically and politically. Since he is a dictator, he must draw his legitimacy from somewhere other than the people directly. Unfortunately for him, this usually occurs when there is economic progress, of which there has been little. And because he represses all alternatives to his rule, the only kind that can sprout is that of extremism. That’s why Islamic radicals find it easy to find a sympathetic population in countries like his.

As far as these protests go, I don’t expect them to reach a critical mass that would culminate in his overthrow. I see it more as a practice run. These people are interested in overthrowing the regime by any means possible, whether it be the ballot box, mass protests, or armed revolution, in which the result would certainly not be democracy or even progress for that matter. If Musharraf wants to hold onto power longer, and if the United States wants to prevent another Taliban-like regime from taking hold, the current government needs to start now at bettering the conditions of its own people. Only then will the people themselves moderate and reject the calls of Islamist radicals.