Democracy

By Daoud Kuttab

A curious thing has happened as Americans were choosing their first black president. Democracy suddenly ceased to be a bad word for many genuine democrats in the Middle East.

In the aftermaths of the war on Iraq and as part of President Bush's attempts to win the hearts and minds of Arabs, a public democracy campaign was launched aimed at injecting Arabs with the democracy virus. Millions of dollars and years later, the effort has been pronounced as a failure. Democracy salespeople had a problem selling their goods while the Bush administration was occupying the Arab country of Iraq, supporting the continued occupation and illegal settlements of the West Bank while simultaneously placing a worldwide financial siege on a truly elected Palestinian government.

Arabs easily dismissed the democracy surge by simply pointing to what was being done by Americans, and in the name of Americans, in the region. Scenes and images from the Abu Ghraib prison to Guantanamo poured cold water on these efforts to convince Arabs of democracy, U.S. style. The arguments passed around in coffee shops and sitting rooms throughout the Arab world was that American democracy is in reality a facade. That while elections do take place on the surface, a behind-the-scenes process led by a handful of people really decides who rules America.

This has continued to be the lead anti-democracy argument ... until this week.

In this interview published in the Charlotte Observer, college professors Paul Kengor and Michael Coulter ask Radwan Masmoudi, founder of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, tough questions about democracy, shari"Ëœa and the Muslim world. Do Muslims want democracy? Is it possible in Iran? In Iraq? What elements of Islam could be considered "liberal"?

by Paul Kengor and Michael Coulter

Washington, D.C. - In an ironic turn of events, Yemen's September 20 presidential and local elections garnered extensive favourable coverage by the normally critical Al-Jazeera, while they received only scant attention from the U.S. government, heretofore eager to highlight any sign of reform in Arab states. Why did U.S. officials refrain from highlighting what many foreign observers have praised as successful elections? Possible explanations include a return to traditional priorities in which security interests supersede democracy promotion, a calculated U.S. effort to promote Arab reform more quietly, or simply an oversight due to other distractions.

by Jeremy M. Sharp

This has been something of a typical week in the wide world of contemporary political Islamism. Osama Ben Laden released another threatening audio message. The next day, three bombs exploded in an Egyptian tourist resort. Palestine's elected government headed by Hamas is threatened at home by its rival Fateh, and strangulated from abroad by the US, Europe and Israel. The Iranian government builds on its announcement of mastering small-scale uranium enrichment by defying and provoking the West and Israel, who are trying to prevent its development of a full nuclear fuel cycle.

by Rami G. Khoury

If political and economic reform are supposed to “drain the swamp” and lead to a more peaceful, prosperous Arab world, we should be prepared to be patient for the process to bear fruit. The swamp — like all organic phenomena that hate oblivion — is fighting back, and showing its considerable muscle.

The swamp of the contemporary Middle East is fed by homegrown political discontent, chronic abuse of power, economic stress, social inequity and sustained abuse by foreign powers. The swamp will only retreat when more wholesome forces are able to mobilise effectively and push it back. This has yet to happen, but an important learning process is under way.

by Rami G. Khouri

While the international boycott of the Hamas-led government might bring about its collapse simply out of practical necessity, it most likely will also leave Hamas as popular as ever since that collapse will be seen as a direct result of external pressure rather than any failing of the government itself.

by Ghassan Khatib

ALTHOUGH critics across the board have skewered Egypt's top-down reform efforts as deeply flawed and inherently self-serving, it is clear that measures taken in recent months nonetheless have greatly raised the stakes of political activity. Imbued with new significance, the Egyptian political arena has been swept by a heightened flurry of campaigning, mudslinging and undermining, with competition at times becoming literally cutthroat.

By Jennifer Peterson