Iranian Nobel Winner: U.S. Cannot Impose Democracy

[maddezmom]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran's Nobel laureate said on Wednesday Islam and democracy were compatible but that the United States could not impose a pluralistic society on Iraq (news - web sites) or elsewhere in the Middle East.



Shirin Ebadi, who last year became the first Muslim woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for her human rights efforts, said that too many Islamic nations hid behind religion to justify human rights violations.


"But I say we can be a Muslim and at the same time enjoy human rights and democracy," Ebadi told a news conference through an interpreter. "In order to justify the violation of human rights, Islamic governments invoke Islam."


The 57-year-old jurist, who is touring the United States and Canada, said democracy was a historical process that could not be imposed from the outside and that the new Iraqi government would have to earn its legitimacy.


"It's the performance that we have to watch out for," Ebadi said. "Democracy is not a present to offer a nation. Democracy cannot be imposed when people are dropping bombs on them."

~snip~
more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=4&u=/nm/20040603/wl_nm/un_nobel_ebadi_dc

[cliss]

1. Notice the 2 words; "impose" and "democracy"

Those two words are so far apart, they belong in different galaxies.

And leave it to the Keystone Cops in Washington to try to make us believe their little fairy tales.