A New Arab World

Great op-ed from a CNN journalist this week, noting the hope that now is growing for a new Arab World.  The article was entitled "A new Arab World is coming, with or without U.S." I had to chuckle at the inference that the U.S. really didn't have anything to do with the current events.

John Esposito, a leading professor of Islamic-Christian studies confirms that "What has occurred is not an attempt at an Islamist takeover but a broad-based call for reforms." (source)

Will their really be reform and freedom in the Arab World?  Of course this remains to be seen, but I hope and pray that religious freedom, and the freedom to change ones religion become values in these new societies.  I hope corruption becomes a dirty word in the Middle East, instead of the status quo, and that entrepreneurialism is encouraged and rewarded.  I long for women to have equal rights, to be respected, not only by governments, but by their families and cultures.  I long for Christians to be able to worship in freedom, to share the hope of their Saviour with their friends, to build churches and meet in homes without fear of retribution.  

May God bring about a temporal peace, yes, but even more, may he create the kind of environment where Arabs, the sons of Abraham and Ishmael, are free to consider eternal life and eternal peace with their creator.