generalspeaking

Tolerance and Respect = Democracy

George W. Bush's vision of the glorious spread of democracy throughout the Middle East has succeeded admirably in capturing the loving attention of the Middle East which aspires to create for itself the reputation that it has embraced democracy. If it is so valued a political ideology throughout the West's advanced societies, then it must be valued for Muslim countries as well.

As though democracy and Islamism are compatible. If Islam had a secular vision then democracy might fit into the picture. And since 'moderate' Islam is clearly on the wane - and most particularly including those Muslim countries which have been traditionally governed in a secular manner while remaining Muslim - where a form of democracy did flourish, that time has now passed, with a flagrant rampaging fundamentalist Islam taking deep root in those same countries.

Still, former President Bush lavished much attention and many expectations on the potential of exporting that precious human-rights commodity to the Muslim world. Didn't he enjoy trumpeting that democracy would take root in Iraq, thanks to the summary dismissal of Saddam Hussein, and the people, seeing how indispensable democracy was to good and accountable governance would clamour for it to take seed.

And isn't that, after all, how the international community interpreted the now-year-old phenomenon of the Arab Spring? That it represented a groundswell of popular yearning for freedom and liberty - democracy! Encouraging the West through NATO to become involved in Libya, getting its fingers burnt, but not acknowledging it, by helping Islamism take hold there, as it did in Tunisia, in Egypt, and will do in Syria.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, freed from Saddam's iron fist, and learning all about democracy under American tutelage, held elections and celebrated itself as a government for all the people. With the departure of American troops, all the people now understand that theirs is a Shia government and the Sunnis have responded. The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda offshoot is busy contradicting the Shia government's assurance of its place in Iraq.

But truth is, no matter who, the Shia or the Sunni, tribal and sectarian hatred, intrepid in its vicious determination to endure and to slaughter one the other is once again on the raging move. And, as usual, any of the Middle East states point the finger of blame at foreign interference - while foreign interference has done its utmost to persuade them to have tolerance and respect for one another.

The intolerance and suspicion, rage and hatred against the presence of non-Muslims in Muslim societies has grown exponentially with the growth of political Islam into fanatical fascism, a form of Islamism. The plight of Christians became apparent in the new Iraq, the new Egypt, and now Syrian Christians are cowering in fear at the prospect of the fall of the Assad regime.

For disconcertingly enough, the tyrants and their brutish rule maintained order among the various tribes and sects and disparate religions, even while they imposed their will and elevated their own tribe and sect to elite status, oppressing all others. But maintaining civil order and ensuring that they were not at one another's throats - unless any one group posed as a threat to the regime.

Now that the tyrants have fallen in some places, all bets are off, and the resilience of hatred is resurrected with vicious attacks by suicide bombers, and other imaginative devices of destruction stalk the land.

Labels: Middle East, Political Realities, United States

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, February 25, 2012