受到西方支持的专制政权多年来把任何可能会取代在位的阿拉伯政权的成长中的自由主义运动都扼杀在襁褓之中，并且任何突然推行的自由选举都演变成伊斯兰民主危险的实施。
Years of Western-backed repressive authoritarianism nipped in the bud any potential growth of a liberal alternative to the incumbent Arab regimes, and turned any abrupt move to free elections into a dangerous exercise in Islamic democracy.