When Dr. Steve Niva came to Washington State Univeristy Tri-Cities on Nov. 14 to give his public talk on "How the demand for democracy, not Facebook, is changing the Middle East today," he shared the platform with local Muslim imam, Dr. Hassan Ziada.

Most of what Niva shared was nothing more than what we can glean from the news and the internet, although it came with a Middle Eastern twist. As in Muslim countries, some of the Muslims made a stink about our camera's presence, and soon we were shut down. Dr. Niva's statement was that he wanted to control his public image. So now you have only our word for what happened, because like in most totalitarian countries, cameras were not allowed.

The reality of the Arab uprising has much to do with freedom of speech, Facebook and other forms of internet media, yet the supposed noble quest for democracy is what was given most the attention.

While I am sure Dr. Ziada (from Egypt) meant well with his usual "harmony among all religions" spiel, he conveniently ignored the fact that Coptic churches have been the target of firebombs and violence in Egypt for years.

DALE BROWN, Prosser