Since the American tragedy of September 11, 2001, the Middle East has been the epicenter of international attention. Cries for democracy and freedom in the region have permeated Western media. When Iraq was discovered to be free of weapons of mass destruction, bringing democracy to the country became the new reason for the war. Almost every First World country in the world is a democracy, if not in name, then at least in practice. It would be forgivable to think that democracy is the cause of wealth, civil liberties, and all the things associated with first world countries, because there is almost no wealthy nation today that is not a de facto democracy. However, although democracy is undoubtedly an amazing invention of humanity and works well in many nations, this does not mean that it is universally correct and should be applied to every nation in the world. Because if democracy were imposed on many Middle Eastern nations, it would not be a harbinger of greater civil liberties, wealth and peace, but a step towards secular extremist regimes, far less friendly to each other and to the West than their moderate authoritarian predecessors . At the beginning of the 19th century, after the First World War, the Ottoman Empire collapsed. Comprising much of the Middle East and the Arab world, the League of Nations, a group of imperialist Western nations who had fought on the side of the victorious allies during the war, had great intentions to prevent future wars. However, some of their actions are credited with directly leading to World War II. One of their mandates that would have grim consequences for future generations was ratified in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, this treaty effectively divided the Middle East into new colonies for the victorious EU... middle of paper.... ..Rativi Political Studies 43.11 (2010): 1442-1470. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Network. December 7, 2010. Falk, Richard. "America's Pro-Iraq Neutrality." Nation 231.13 (1980): 398-401. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Network. 7 December 2010.Guida, Michelangelo. “New Islamists' Understanding of Democracy in Türkiye: The Examples of Ali Bulac and Hayreddin Karaman.” Turkish Studies 11.3 (2010): 347-370. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Network. 7 December 2010.Tibi, Bassam. "Islamism and democracy: on the compatibility between institutional Islamism and the political culture of democracy". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 10.2 (June 2009): 135-64. Print.Weiffen, Brigitte. “The Cultural-Economic Syndrome: Obstacles to Democracy in the Middle East.” Comparative Sociology 3.3/4 (2004): 353-375. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Network. 7 December. 2010.