THE NEW STORM AND DEMOCRACY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Year 2002, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 1 - 33, 01.07.2002

Adel Safty

Abstract

Ten years after the Desert Storm operation against Iraq blew devastatingly through the Middle East, the war against Afghanistan is bringing to the region a new storm – one that has challenged Arabs and Muslims to take a clear stand for or against terrorism. In the ensuing debate, Arabs and Muslims have also been challenged to respond to criticisms and charges that their culture was incompatible with democracy and freedom. The general response of the Arab countries has been to condemn terrorism and reaffirm their support for freedom and democracy. This is not enough. I shall argue that while progress has been made in democratisation, the real challenge, and the only truly lasting response to the campaign of vilification of Arabic and Islamic culture, is to consolidate the institutions of democracy. Failure to do that perpetuates the lopsided relationship between the West and the Middle East.

References

• 1 Guardian, 16 October 2001.
• 2 Harry N. Howard The King-Crane Commission: An American Inquiry in the Middle East, Beirut, Khayat’s, 1963, p. 218.
• 3 See the full text of the King-Crane Commission Report in George Antonius, The Arab Awakening: The Story of the Arab National Movement, New York, Capricorn Books, 1965, pp. 443-458. See also Harry N. Howard, opt. cit.
• 4 Guardian, 11 September 1999.
• 5 See Ibrahim Sa’ada, Akhbar el Youm (in Arabic), 13 October 2001.
• 6 David Hirst, ‘Few Arabs Share bin Laden’s Fundamentalism, but His Militancy on Palestine and Iraq Strike a Chord that Resonates Widely’, Guardian, 9 October 2001.
• 7 Ibid.
• 8 ‘There isn’t a target in Afghanistan worth a $1 million missile’, Guardian, 10 October 2001.
• 9 Hard Talk, BBC, 1 November 2001.
• 10 Anthony Lewis, ‘Is There an Answer?’, New York Times, 30 October 2001.
• 11 ‘UN Official Blasts Iraqi Sanctions’, BBC, 30 September 1999.
• 12 David Edward’s interview with Denis Halliday in Zmagazine, March 2000.
• 13 Akhbar al-Youm (in Arabic), Cairo, 20 October 2001.
• 14 See Thomas Friedman’s piece in the New York Times, reprinted in the Guardian on 12 October 2001.
• 15 Fareed Zakaria, BBC World News, 23 October 2001.
• 16 C. Castoriadis, Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy, New York, Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 111-12.
• 17 See Jochen Hippler (ed.), The Democratisation of Disempowerment, London, Pluto Press, 1995.
• 18 See Geoffrey Hawthorn, ‘Constitutional Democracy in the South’, in Robin Luckhan and Gordon White (eds.), Democratisation in the South, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 1996.
• 19 Robert A. Dahl, Democracy and its Critics, Yale University Press, 1989, p. 95.
• 20 James Bryce, The American Commonwealth, 2 volumes, London, Macmillan, 1910, p. 350.
• 21 Carlyle, 1897, quoted in Jon Roper, Democracy and its Critics: Anglo-American Democratic Thought in the Nineteenth Century, London, Unwin Hyman, 1989, p. 174.
• 22 See Robert A. Dahl, op. cit., p. 324.
• 23 See Robert A. Dahl, op. cit., pp. 221-222. See also Robert A. Dahl, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1971.
• 24 Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 3rd edition, New York, Harper and Row, 1950, p. 252.
• 25 Larry Diamond, Juan J. Linz and Seymour Martin Lipset (eds.), Democracy in Developing Countries, 4 volumes, Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner, 1988 and 1989, p. xvi.
• 26 The United Nations, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
• 27 Fawzy Mansour, The Arab World: Nation, State and Democracy, Tokyo, UNU Press: London, Zed Books, 1992, p. 88.
• 28 See Khaldoun Hasan al-Naqeeb, ‘Social Origins of the Authoritarian State in the Arab East’, pp. 36-70, in Eric Davis and Nicolas Gavrieldes (eds.), Statecraft in the Middle East: Oil, Historical Memory and Popular Culture, Miami, Florida International University Press, 1991.
• 29 Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset (eds.), op. cit. 30 Jamal Al-Suwaidi, “Arab and Western Conceptions of Democracy, Evidence from a UAE Opinion Survey,” pp. 82-115, in David Garnham and Mark Tessler (eds.), Democracy, War and Peace in the Middle East, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1995.
• 31 See for instance Maryam Jameelah, Islam Face to Face with the Current Crisis, Lahore, Sunnat Nagar, 1979.
• 32 See Mohammed Elhachmi Hamdi, ‘Islam and Liberal Democracy: the Limits of the Western Model’, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No: 2, 1996, pp. 81-85.
• 33 See for instance the discussion in Fazlur Ahmad (ed.), ‘State, Politics and Islam’, in Mumtaz Ahmad (ed.), State, Politics and Islam, Indianapolis, American Trust Publications, 1986.
• 34 Amos Perlmutter. ‘Islam and Democracy are Simply not Compatible’, International Herald Tribune, 21 January 1992.
• 35 See Judith Miller, God has Ninety Nine Names, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1996.
• 36 See Heather Deegan, The Middle East and Problems of Democracy, Buckingham, Open University Press, 1993; see also G. W. Choudhury, Islam and the Contemporary World, London, Indus Thames, 1990.
• 37 See Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi, Islamic Way of Life, trans. Khurshid Ahmad, Delhi, Markazi Maktaba Islami, 1967, p. 40.
• 38 See Bernard Lewis, ‘Islam and Liberal Democracy: A Historical Overview’, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No: 2, 1996, pp. 52-63.
• 39 See the lecture by Sheikh Rachid al-Ghanouchi, ‘The Conflict Between the West and Islam: The Tunisian Case: Reality and Prospects’, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 9 May 1995, available through [e-mail]; see also Robin Wright, ‘Islam and Liberal Democracy: Two Visions of Reformation’, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No: 2, 1996, pp: 64-75.
• 40 Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights and International Law, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 1990.
• 41 See Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798-1939, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 1983, p. 144.
• 42 G. W. Choudhury, Islam and the Contemporary World, London, Indus Thames, 1990, p. 45.
• 43 Laith Kubba, ‘Islam and Liberal Democracy: Recognising Pluralism’, Journal of Democracy,Vol. 7, No: 2, 1996, pp. 86-89.
• 44 Steven R. Dorr, ‘Democratisation in the Middle East’, pp. 131-157 in Robert O. Slater, Barry M. Schutz and Steven R. Dorr (eds.), Global Transformation and the Third World, Colorado, Lynne Rienner, 1993.
• 45 ‘With a Field Reduced to One Algerians Vote’, New York Times, 16 April 1999.
• 46 See Le Monde Diplomatique, July 1999.
• 47 Roger Owen “The Practice of Electoral Democracy in the Arab East and North Africa: Some Lessons from Nearly a Century’s Experience,” in Ellis Goldberg, Reçat Kasaba, and Joel Migdal, editors. Rules and Rights in the Middle East. University of Washington Press: Seattle. 1993
• 48 See Adel Safty, From Camp David to the Gulf, Montreal and New York, Black Rose, 1992, 1996.