Arab Government Complicity in riots and protests?

Well, by now the Arab world (or at least the part of it reported on by the media, has proven the accuracy of the cartoons published in Jyllands-Posten four months ago. This is not surprising, but disappointing nonetheless. The Religion of Peace hosts peaceful demonstrations where buildings are burned, people are sent to the hospital and death threats are issued. Very peaceful.

And yet... no one discusses the influence of the Arab governments in these protests. It seems to me that not only are the governments doing nothing to stop these protests, they are in fact encouraging them. Why? For the same reason all countries with despotic governments, limited civil rights and little hope for the future instigate civil unrest: by putting attention onto something irrelevant (like these cartoons), the Arab government help distract their populations from the fact that there is no money (for many of them), people are oppressed, they live by, frankly, fascistic theocratic laws. So the government organizes huge protests, busses people in and lets them go loose. Does anyone think that governments, which we already know are prone to violence, for some reason now can't control their people. Of course not. They are letting their people get away with it, so they don't wake up and pay attention to the misery of their situation. But... I doubt this will be a popular position.


Incidentally, I would point the readers to one of the first postings on the The Accuser, Religion and Occam's Razor. Some points brought up there are particularly valid when people start throwing around the "you've insulted their religion" line.