The right to choose

When someone talks about Islam, exotic images of women clad in body concealing garments and men riding camels atop knobbly kneed camels through the dessert come to mind for most of the Western World. Islam and the Arabic culture have become one and the same in popular images and not many of us delve any deeper than that to discover the truth or examine our own feelings about it.
Since 9/11, when a few rouge jihadists hijacked planes and completed the most devastating blow to American security since Pearl Harbour, so much misinformation has been thrown at us from different angles that the water is too muddied to figure out what the truth is.
To ask someone in the Midwest, one would probably come across opinions like, "The Islamic World hates America and wants to see us destroyed" or "Muslims want to take over the World and we are all that is standing in the way" or "Muslims oppress women and don't let them go to school or work".
However, with the highly televised revolution in Egypt, suddenly people could see that there were women in the streets who were not clad in "oppressive clothing" nor were all the men riding on camels and there were no anti-American slogans on any signs. All that was seen was a group of really oppressed people who want the freedom to choose their leaders. There was no mention of the support from western corporations governments (they are one and the same) who have kept the oppressive regime in power so they can take advantage of the country's strategic positions.
The right for self determination, without the interference of governments with deep pockets, is a basic fundamental human right. Like many, who support the revolution taking place in North Africa and the Arabic peninsula, let us rally behind our fellow human beings who, for the most part, are as much jihadists as we are Mormons.