The past few months weeks saw a rape of democracy on all the four corners, first, it was at Zanzibar in Africa; second, Azerbaijan in the Caucus; third, Egypt in the Middle East, and fourth and more recently, in Kazakhstan in Central Asia. Then I stopped counting out of sheer frustration.

We are trying Saddam Hussain for massacres in Dujail and Halabja and are looking for Radovan Karadzic for massacres in Srebrenica, but are at the same time permitting Ilham Aliyev in Azerbaijan to oppress his people to his heart's content. Just like, a few months ago, we permitted the butcher of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov to write fresh narratives of bestiality by killing 745 unarmed civilians, mostly women and children at point blank range at Andijan. Of course, we are keeping the records handy that if he goes against our political wishes at any time, we will suddenly be "guided by God" to remove him "as our moral duty" and then we will try him for crimes. But at that time, we will find ourselves appeasing other dictators elsewhere.

We have given a blank cheque to all the criminals to kill whosoever they like, if he could take the trouble of a slight mention in a public speech later on that the killed ones were all Islamic fundamentalists, so we make the killings politically less costly for our domestic audience. Or probably that for something called conscience, which I do believe, somewhere deep in the heart must exist even in George Bush and Tony Blair.

These young men and women facing abuse by the naked force of the state from Central Asia to Middle East and Africa are tomorrow's suicide bombers. They are the ones who face utter helplessness, powerlessness and humiliation when their right to peaceful change of government is snatched from them.

Rather than hating the "values" of the Westfreedom and democracythese young men and women actually love democracy and want it to be extended to their homelands. They watch the lavish lifestyle of America and Europe on the television sets and are convinced that this is because of democracy. They come out on the street to call for democracy and social justice, and an end to authoritarian brutalities. They are then shot at point blank range. The ones who go back "intac" lose the capacity of facing the same humiliation again. They want power and the suicide bomb gives it to them. Most people from the Muslim world who kill Americans like that, do not have a record of praying even at Friday congregations.

Coming back to Azerbaijan where the election was nothing more than a joke, the ruling New Azerbaijan Party of Ilham Aliyev has romped home with 63 seats in a house of 125 with opposition alliance gaining just six, and the remainder going to parties and independents allied with the president. Primarily to look good in the Western media, ruling parties in totalitarian or semi-totalitarian states, no longer give themselves 120 of the 125 seats, up for grabs. Suffice is to leave the opposition with a handful of symbolic seats and distribute the remaining lot among the loyalists with multiple political labels, so a facade of multi-party democracy could be sold to the mentors in Washington.

Since independence in 1991, Azerbaijan has remained a cross breed of monarchy and dictatorship. The all-powerful head of state is known by the politically-correct term "president", not "king," yet the president gets "democratically succeeded" by his heir and eldest son, who then starts perpetuating his rule in an equally "democratic manner." Veteran Communist leader Haider Aliyev, ruled the country through an iron hand since 1993 and exactly a decade later, in a fake electoral exercise, he was succeeded by his prime minister, Ilham Aliyevit was purely coincidental though that the prime minister was none other than his playboy son. Those who questioned the fairness of the polls are still in jails serving harsh sentences. This is not something unique in the region. Syria's Hafiz el-Asad was succeeded by his son Bashar el-Asad; North Korea's Kim Il Sung was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il; even Iraq's ousted dictator Saddam Hussein was grooming his playboy son Uday Hussein to replace him. In the circumstances, Ilham could hardly have been expected to be a better version of his father.

His rule is infested with the crisis of governance reflected through stifling of political dissent, gagging the media and crony capitalism. His hard hitting tactics against the peaceful demonstrators are jeopardizing the stability of his country. Then why is the West silent? Can one argue that the Americans are turning a blind eye so that they have more control over the country's oil resources. Everybody in the State Department and Pentagon has to be lunatic to assume this after their experience in Iraq.

Admittedly, the leaders of new found democracies are more dependent on the West for support and security, and are more likely to be pliant, as the new leadership of Georgia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan has shown. Plus the nascent countries are likely to remain in stable over longer periods. Ilham Aliyev may be doing the bidding of the US oil companies but so will hi any of his democratic replacement. If he is allowed to stay, he will brutalize the whole fabric of the society. Azebaijan may well be another Chechnya or Lebanon in the making. It would not augur well for anybody's interests, least of all those of the US companies.

The immediate concern at the moment are the lives of the citizens in Azerbaijan if the opposition gives calls for more demonstrations in January. If the governments are not responding, it may work if we, the world citizenry, start a letter writing campaign addressed to Azerbaijan's army and police canvassing them to refuse any orders to shoot into the protesters.

The writer is a Cambridge-based scholar and a widely read analyst on politics, governance and human rights in the Muslim world.