|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54788-2003Nov17
Building Arab Democracy
(Washington Post) Hala Mustafa and David Makovsky - Arab democratization is not a fantasy, it is a necessity - for both Americans and Arabs alike. Islamist fanatics such as al-Qaeda gained ground by painting America as the main pillar of support for what they would call bloated, corrupt, and oppressive Arab regimes. Instead of confronting the ideology of the Islamists, Arab leaders tried to ride the Islamist wave, just as they rode anti-colonial, pan-Arabist, and anti-Israel waves in previous decades. But these regimes could never truly out-Islam the Islamists. A strategy of promoting Arab democratization would demolish the cynical "Islam is the solution" myth propagated by the Islamists and would give ordinary citizens a stake in the development of their own countries.