Twilight of the Arabs

I have just read an excellent article in The Spectator's by Matthew Parris.  It is titled "The Arab world deserves our pity, not our fear", and it points out that behind the hate-filled rhetoric of Al Qaeda
and Co. lies a culture in terminal decline.
Which brings me to the current protests and insurrections flaring across the Middle East. I'm afraid that I don't buy the 'Arab Spring' argument that they represent a mass movement towards democracy. Against corruption, incompetence and unemployment, yes. But democracy is still an alien concept in the Islamic world.
I have a theory about the current upheavals, which is that they represent the second act of a massive, unplanned cultural experiment. The first act of that experiment was the mass emigration - for the first time in history - of Muslims into the non-Muslim world. There can now be few Muslims - whether they be situated in the Middle East or elsewhere - who do not know of friends or relatives who live in what is vaguely know as 'the West', and who are simply better off, and safer, than they. It is that which is making them look critically at their own living standards.
As for the bombing of Libya, I'm agin' it. You can't bomb order into chaos, as we should have learned by now.