Take your fist out of my wound already. Nothing, absolutely NOTHING hurts like the truth!
Only economic liberalization and political freedom can quell the frustration that breeds Islamic extremism in the Middle East.
The Arab world is at a crossroads, with the status quo unsustainable. It is a region full to bursting, with economies that cannot sustain a growing population and a lack of political breathing room that promises no outlet for frustration with government shortcomings. Ask from where the constituency for Islamic extremism comes, and it is here, in the nexus of economic frustration and political suffocation. But will promised liberalization materialize?
Looking backward there is every reason to believe that democracy and economic reform are fads of the moment. The region has been unusually susceptible to ideological fashion: Baathism, Nasserism, and Islamism, for example. The -isms come and go, but the presidencies, the monarchies, and the systems seem to last forever. In a region where many leaders have their eyes on the glory of the past and their elaborate intelligence services on maintaining the glories of the moment, it seems almost fanciful to hope that the current popularity of “reform� can offer any more than the grand intellectual -isms of the past.
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[quote]In Bahrain, free elections are only half the story at best; the king�s appointed parliament has powers equal to those of the elected body. In addition, problems with Shia political groups have plagued the nation, and recently the vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights was imprisoned.[/quote]
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The observation above is obviously false because it places the blame on the Middle East itself rather than on the United States, which, as everyone in the Middle East knows, is to blame for everything.
Steve
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Too true.
How can we get the Middle East into the modern world? That’s an impossible question to many people. Government fads come and go, but tribalism and warlordism still play a terrible toll on the mindset of the Middle East.
I hate sounding bigoted, but until the Middle East as a whole chucks the idea of tribal identity and the ‘need’ for ‘strongmen’ and ‘cults of personality
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Sarcasm stains, Steve. You gotta wash it out quickly.
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I think all this sarcasm is inappropriate to the post. A dream denied is an incredible tragedy.
The author is skeptical that the Middle East is toying with another ‘ism’ …but its not really comparable to all the isms of the past. Naziism…Communism…etc. have not succeeded really anywhere and never would. Democracy isn’t an ism….its just a flexible system that allows societies to change within limits.
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DON’T STOP! Now is the time to redouble your efforts. If we are going to see a free and democratic Middle East, it must begin with people like you. The vision of over a million people in Lebanon who had lost their fear of the government and the Syrian military, brought tears to my cynical eyes. The dictators live in constant fear that the people will rise against them. How else do you explain the fact that Assad backed down after the demonstrations and Bush’s terse comments? How else can you explain the fact that the Evil Empire (the Soviet Union) collapsed without a shot being fired? Can I can let you in on a dirty little secret? THEY ARE SCARED SHITLESS OF YOU!
My father had a great saying: “They can kill you, but they can’t eat you!” A rough translation might be that they can take your life (or your freedom,) but they cannot kill your ideas. If the Soviet Union collapsed, in part due to the fact that they could no longer mantain the lies and illusions they had generated over 70 years, how long do you expect the turbaned hypocrites to last in the face of a genuine mass movement for political and econimic freedom?
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This is an incredibly complicated subject and cannot really be addressed with cheap one liners.
The truth of the matter is that ‘the presidencies, the monarchies and the systems’ do NOT really last forever. In the past 70 odd years alone, look at Iraq, Iran, Iraq again, Algeria, Egypt, Libya … The systems in these countries have changed dramatically from monarchies to military leaderships to theocracies. It is unfair to state that the leadership in this part of the world is impervious to the challenges that it faces. What we can say is that the leadership in this part of the world has not really met the challenges in a fundamental sustainable manner where new generations have more hope than their parents of living a better life.
Why do people turn to Islam? Several reasons. So far, the religious based leadership in our part of the world has proved more effective at building a civil government than the real government. (Hizbollah in Lebanon). Also, religion is easy. There are simple rules for what you can and cannot do. It absolves people from responsability and from engaging in the democractic process. and, for the Westerners out there, democracy is not one man one vote – it is a system of accountability with checks and balances where the judiciary is independent.
What are the real challenges to us? It is to transcend this concept of tribe first, country later. Or sect first, country later. We need to actively help build the social-political fabric of our countries by defining who and what we are.
What is the real challenge to existing leadership? In Iran, the theocracy need to incorporate the desires and hopes of their largest demographic group – the below 30’s that never even saw the revolution. In saudi? Again – its demographics. people have had their standard of living drop significantly in the past 20 years. In Iraq? The Shia need to remain steadfast and not respond to the provocative acts of the Sunnis who would like to see the country implode into a civil war. In Lebanon? Will the current and new leadership recognize Nasrallah as a representative player and incorporate him into the political structure? In Syria – will the current leadership prove that they are actually running the country and not the old guard? In Bahrain – will the current leadership incorporate 70% of their population into their governing structure (including the military)?
The real answer lies with whether the leadership has a vision for the future. And whether there is a strong understanding of what the opportunity cost is for not acting pre-emptively.
Dubya or not – right winger or not – neocon or not – the man and his administration has done more to shake things up in this part of the world than any other president. He shook up the Gulf by ‘liberating’ Iraq. It is really up to us to determine how we want the dust to settle. And we can first start by really turning inward and facing our own problems without the usual traditional manner of denial and blame. Real courage starts in facing the self.
Jasra Jedi
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very true and fair observation. would people and their governors be able to courageously find a solution to the real degradation in quality of life in our countries? It would seem at least that the people – us – have woken up to the fact that yes, we want to hold our governments responsible, we want to the judiciary to be just, we want equal opportunities not based on tribal affiliation and sects, but rather with individual creativity and productivity. This is what democracy is to me.
This seismic shift only happened after 9/11. An unfortunate event, but the effects of which will continue to be felt for tens of years to come. The realisation that to erode the terrorists’ base, you have to provide democracy.
This is happening, even in Saudi of all places where only a short few months ago no one would dare question the authorities or their religious police, the newspapers now are full of thoughtful articles calling for them to be reined in. The calls so far have been indirect and shy in most cases, but at least they are starting to rock the cradle.
Witness Fargad Al-Madhi’s article in today’s Arab News Build on Dreams, Not Nightmares and Lubna Hussain’s Thank You, Ma’am. Have a Nice Day to name just two examples of this shift.
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[quote]This is happening, even in Saudi of all places where only a short few months ago no one would dare question the authorities or their religious police, the newspapers now are full of thoughtful articles calling for them to be reined in. The calls so far have been indirect and shy in most cases, but at least they are starting to rock the cradle. [/quote]
The problem here Mahmood is that many, if not most, of these same papers are owned by members of the Saudi establishment. They allow a modest amount of dissent in their papers, but it will never cross the line to over support for regime change. We know that this is the only answer in many of these places, such as Saudi Arabia.
The dissent sometimes allowed in these papers I view as the establishment seeking to give the populace a sort of release valve. I dont view it as being anything more than that. Saudi Arabia, for instance, has made no reforms. Recent elections are not reforms, they are a reinstitution of a policy that the Saudis had some 30-40 years ago. These councils are half elected, half appointed with no power.
All of this stuff, in Saudi and elsewhere, is nothing but window dressing. Look what happens when citizens call for real reform in these areas. Many Saudi men are still in prison because they dared protest for real and meaningful elections. The leaders are doing as little as they can in the hopes that it will be enough. It will not, of course, but they will not learn this until it is too late and too much blood will have been shed. Of course they wont care, they have “pension funds” in place in the west for any such eventuality.
It is the royal family and the establishment “rocking the craddle” as you say. Why are they doing it? In the hopes they can stop any real reform. Look at the papers that have been critical as of late. Who owns them? They are not privately owned in the vast majority of cases. They are owned by the very same people that these “dissenting peices” are talking about.
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Hello,
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“Terrorism and why my plane didn’t fly?�
http://www.lulu.com/content/142479
and my web-site of an Anti Terror organization.
http://www.ATIO.org
Please forward this email and information to anyone you feel would be interested in fighting terrorism from a different angle.
Thank you
ATIO
Anti Terror Islamic Organization
Fargad Al-Madhi