A Future Jordan - نحن الأردن

Democracy promotion in the middle east: view from the street

Democracy promotion in the middle east: view from the street
Middle East Institute
February 16, 2005

Speaker:
Dr. Radwan A. Masmoudi
President, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy

Brief:
Democracy and Islam can be integrated, argues Dr. Masmoudi, and may successfully complement one another. Masmoudi and Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy define democracy as free and fair elections, representative government, separate and independent branches of government, respect for basic freedoms, and the protection of minority rights.

The current status of the Arab and Muslim world reflects an environment of despair, corruption, violence and poverty. The lack of dignity, freedom, accountability and legal outlets for protest fuels extremism. It is the desperation of this environment of oppression that prompts Dr. Masmoudi to predict a period of rapid change in the Middle East within the next 5-10 years.

Dr. Masmoudi reports that 90 percent of Arabs view democracy as the best form of governance. Support for democracy, however, is frequently constrained by negative associations with secularism in the region. Secularism, in part because it is associated with communism, is perceived as anti-religion. Achieving democratic reform, however, does not exclusively require popular support. One of Dr. Masmoudi’s primary contentions is that democracy promotion in the Middle East requires external pressure, either from the United States or Europe.

Pressure for political reform in the Middle East by the United States serves both the interests of those seeking political representation in the region, as well as U.S. foreign policy objectives. Dr. Masmoudi rejects the argument that U.S. support for authoritarian, yet friendly, regimes serves U.S. interests and highlights the growing suspicion among Arab populations of U.S. claims to support democracy. Democracy can make significant inroads in the Middle East, in Dr. Masmoudi’s opinion, by encouraging freedom of the press, free market economies, freedom of religion, judicial systems that respect the rule of law, and freedom of association.

Dr. Masmoudi concluded his presentation with a personal account of the current situation in four Middle Eastern states. In Iran, the youth is progressively more secular and nationalistic. Many of them view the Islamic Revolution to have largely failed in meeting its goals, and reject the idea that they live in an “Islamic democracy.” Over the last five years, Bahrain has greatly eased repression and although the parliament is weak, the press enjoys great freedom. Jordan, along with Morocco, is considered one of the most open and democratic states in the Arab world. Jordan’s economy is relatively weak and its civil society is strong, but ineffective. Tunisia, according to Dr. Masmoudi, has the greatest potential for democratic reform as defined by CSID due to the existence of a strong middle class and a relatively strong economy. The reality, however, is that political parties remain weak.

In closing, Dr. Masmoudi advocated that the United States stop supporting repressive authoritarian regimes in the Arab and Muslim world. The U.S. should treat political reform as it does economic reform and require timetables. In addition to encouraging reform, the U.S. should support the political participation of moderate Islamic parties, as it has done in Iraq, in order to provide a legal outlet for grievances and refrain from radicalization of these parties through exclusion.

Speaker: Radwan A. Masmoudi is the founder and current president of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID). CSID is a non-profit organization, based in Washington DC, dedicated to studying Islamic and democratic political thought and merging them into a modern Islamic democratic discourse. The organization was founded in March 1999.

posted by Ashraf Zeitoon @ 7:01 AM