Human Rights and Democracy in the Arab World (repost)

[gottaB]

I posted this in Editorials because of the way Sabir cuts into the Bush administration, but I think his perspective may be of particular interest to the foreign policy crowd, so I'm reposting it here.

*****

by Abderrahim Sabir

....

If we live today in what we may call the globalization of the extra-judicial, the Arab world is quite a microcosm. This politique du tout sécuritaire opens the doors wide open to extremism and not to democracy and the rule of law. Arab democrats suffer from amnesia in their own concepts and perception of what a political change is and how it should occur. For decades, Arab reformists struggled for a change that should come from the masses - in other words from bottom to the top - and should be home grown. The Bush administration, while recognizing that American foreign policy for the last 60 years wrongfully catered to autocratic regimes, is proposing a new strategy: 'reforms' that should come from top to the bottom and should be dictated - externally - from the Western world. President Bush seems to ignore the realities of the region. Interestingly enough, both secular reformists and Islamists from the region vehemently rejected Bush's call for reforms.

The Iraqi model is proving to be - for the time being - a total failure, since it is perceived as a product of ignorance and arrogance, and now of illegitimate motives and doctored intelligence conclusions. Instead of witnessing a domino effect throughout the region, we are hearing from autocratic regimes the "I told you so."

The results of war on Iraq are strengthening the regimes in the Middle East rather than creating an environment for reform. Torture, arbitrary arrests, extra-judicial killings are back throughout the region. Chaos, corruption, proliferation of militias 'good' and 'bad' are of the ordre du jour in Iraq.

In this context, the U.S. administration's policy makers continue to ignore the violations committed by their friends, who symbolize corruption and authoritarianism. The American discourse on democracy is largely used against democrats in the Arab World by the defenders of obscurantists projects. Arab democrats should, nonetheless, continue insisting on democracy and the rule of law, but in order to be successful they should distance themselves from the U.S. administration's discourse. Arab reformists such as the Egyptian Dr. Saadeddine Ibrahim and others are losing their impact - some might say their credibility - due to their close association with the U.S. administration. It is not the American message of democracy and the rule of law that is being criticized but the messenger - President W. Bush - who is viewed with disdain. Everyone in the Arab and Muslim world still recalls his embrace of the Israeli leader Ariel Sharon calling him "a man of peace."

Human Rights and Democracy in the Arab World....

[Lithos]

1. It's a good article

Adds another voice to the Bush Administration's lip service to fighting the foundations of terrorism in the ME. Cosmetic change from the top does not equal real change from the bottom.

L-

[bemildred]

2. Nice. nt