If democracy is to remain in the region not only an interlude on the way to Islamism, we must help to an extent that puts everything in the shade. The upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt have reignited the debate about democracy in Muslim-majority countries again.
However, the discussion extends to one-dimensional. It usually begins with the example of Iran. There, the dreams were shattered by the beginning of a democracy in 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini returned to power and installed an Islamic dictatorship. The failure of democratic forces has impressed the leaders of the West long term.
Those who speak of democracy and Western values in a predominantly Muslim populated country in North Africa or the Arabian peninsula, gets always the same answer: If there were truly free elections, the Islamists would win always - see Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That would be the end of democracy and free elections.
So is tolerated in the region prefer more or less secular Diktatn which can carry not day by day to Israel and the United States. better tolerate dictatorships than the loss of stability risk - to have the authoritarian rulers of the Arab world and the governments agreed in the West. It is a narrow view of reality.
Anyone who has seen the mullahs after the flight of the Shah seized power, as they have turned Iran into a large prison, which could actually be inclined to feel the authoritarian rule of the Shah as a boon for the Iranian people. But this version of history ignores the fact that the government has passed the religious clergy in a dictatorship of the Revolutionary Guards, that there is broad opposition movement - a thing of the many Shiite clerics.
Even the victory of Hamas can only be partially explained by the desire of the residents of the Gaza Strip for religious edification. The reasons have to look rather the failure of Western-backed Friends of Arafat, the badly shattered heavily in their own pockets and the chances for peace and prosperity have gambled recklessly.
Turkey - the misunderstood democracy Another example of contrast is often missing in the debate on democracy movements in the Arab world: Turkey. They were long regarded as a country, as it had requested experts in the West during the Cold War: a member of NATO, close military partnership with Israel, reliable in the domestic fight against all opposition from the left and the religious area.
As collateral damage of the Exitus the early Christians and the brutal repression of leftists, Christians, Alevis, conservative Sunnis were accepted. Turkey is an example of that for the Western-tolerated forms of government in the Arab world - secular and corrupt dictatorship versus Islamist corrupt dictatorships - an alternative is: With the election victory of the AKP of Prime Minister Erdogan, Turkey has changed more than in the years since its founding 1923rd Critics will say that Turkey is the thesis under the current AKP leadership is an example of the accuracy that democracy efforts end in the Arab world in Islam.
There are more head scarves in public space, more beards in the cities, conservative Muslims connect more confident and more demanding on. The rejection of Israel and the use of the headscarf in universities are phenomena that seem to support this thesis. But this view ignores much. What seems like a backward development, is more of a more open emergence of rural Anatolia, Turkey.
Always existed, it was just so far not represented in the centers of power in politics and business and thus fell to less. On the cooling of relations between Israel and Turkey, for example, is not only Ankara debt. And if democracy means a representation of all relevant trends and directions in a state, then it is absolutely clear that more democracy in the Muslim world is accompanied by a strengthening of religious and conservative elements.
At the same time, Turkey is also liberal, multi-religious, multicultural, and even feminist and gay. The secular dictatorship was not only the conservative Muslims held from power and trying to assimilate, but also everything else that somehow different, individualistic, was different. So it is no contradiction, that the Christians do still present in today's seemingly more conservative Turkey's freest time since the founding of the republic.
Surprising, however, is that in Germany, now the same Christian Democrats, who previously criticized not want their Christian brothers and sisters were systematically tortured in Turkey and suppressed that address this situation suddenly. Now that the country already in the process, is to step away from this inglorious tradition (albeit much too slowly).
Model for Tunisia and Egypt has now Turkey after all, something democratic experience. Finally, there are a democracy since 1950 and a multi-party system - at least formally. And there is a formal ongoing process of accession to the European Union. So you could argue that the situation in Turkey is not comparable to the situation in the Maghreb or in the Arabian Peninsula was.
The protesters and the liberal thinkers in the Arab elites see it differently. They look to Turkey and are focused on whether the relative level of diversity and democracy, there will be continued successfully. Whether in the long run creates an alternative to Turkish Kemalism and its Arab values: the Ben-Ali-cult in Tunisia, to Nasserism, the Pharaohs cult even President Mubarak in Egypt, to Baathism under Saddam Hussein Iraq.
They see Turkey as a direct competitor to Iran and its expansionist ambitions in the region. When one considers how Europe treats Turkey, then one does not feel that their meaning is understood in the West. Neither Europe seems to be aware of the immense tasks ahead for us if still in Egypt to Tunisia, the dictator is sold - and the masses expect from democracy not only freedom but also economic prosperity and social justice.
If risk we do not want that democracy is only an interlude on the way to Islamism, an interlude on the path to a new authoritarian rule, then have to set us on helping to an extent that all previously seen before in the shade. The people of the region deserve to live in democracy and freedom.
Thus it is not a nightmare for Israel, not Iran's dominance, we must now help the liberal forces - and later make sure that the construction of legal and social state is moving forward quickly, so that people do not back away from democracy. Above all, we must finally include the most important regional partner in our development strategy for the Maghreb and the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey.
And this happens mainly because the land is permanently incorporated into the European Union.
However, the discussion extends to one-dimensional. It usually begins with the example of Iran. There, the dreams were shattered by the beginning of a democracy in 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini returned to power and installed an Islamic dictatorship. The failure of democratic forces has impressed the leaders of the West long term.
Those who speak of democracy and Western values in a predominantly Muslim populated country in North Africa or the Arabian peninsula, gets always the same answer: If there were truly free elections, the Islamists would win always - see Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That would be the end of democracy and free elections.
So is tolerated in the region prefer more or less secular Diktatn which can carry not day by day to Israel and the United States. better tolerate dictatorships than the loss of stability risk - to have the authoritarian rulers of the Arab world and the governments agreed in the West. It is a narrow view of reality.
Anyone who has seen the mullahs after the flight of the Shah seized power, as they have turned Iran into a large prison, which could actually be inclined to feel the authoritarian rule of the Shah as a boon for the Iranian people. But this version of history ignores the fact that the government has passed the religious clergy in a dictatorship of the Revolutionary Guards, that there is broad opposition movement - a thing of the many Shiite clerics.
Even the victory of Hamas can only be partially explained by the desire of the residents of the Gaza Strip for religious edification. The reasons have to look rather the failure of Western-backed Friends of Arafat, the badly shattered heavily in their own pockets and the chances for peace and prosperity have gambled recklessly.
Turkey - the misunderstood democracy Another example of contrast is often missing in the debate on democracy movements in the Arab world: Turkey. They were long regarded as a country, as it had requested experts in the West during the Cold War: a member of NATO, close military partnership with Israel, reliable in the domestic fight against all opposition from the left and the religious area.
As collateral damage of the Exitus the early Christians and the brutal repression of leftists, Christians, Alevis, conservative Sunnis were accepted. Turkey is an example of that for the Western-tolerated forms of government in the Arab world - secular and corrupt dictatorship versus Islamist corrupt dictatorships - an alternative is: With the election victory of the AKP of Prime Minister Erdogan, Turkey has changed more than in the years since its founding 1923rd Critics will say that Turkey is the thesis under the current AKP leadership is an example of the accuracy that democracy efforts end in the Arab world in Islam.
There are more head scarves in public space, more beards in the cities, conservative Muslims connect more confident and more demanding on. The rejection of Israel and the use of the headscarf in universities are phenomena that seem to support this thesis. But this view ignores much. What seems like a backward development, is more of a more open emergence of rural Anatolia, Turkey.
Always existed, it was just so far not represented in the centers of power in politics and business and thus fell to less. On the cooling of relations between Israel and Turkey, for example, is not only Ankara debt. And if democracy means a representation of all relevant trends and directions in a state, then it is absolutely clear that more democracy in the Muslim world is accompanied by a strengthening of religious and conservative elements.
At the same time, Turkey is also liberal, multi-religious, multicultural, and even feminist and gay. The secular dictatorship was not only the conservative Muslims held from power and trying to assimilate, but also everything else that somehow different, individualistic, was different. So it is no contradiction, that the Christians do still present in today's seemingly more conservative Turkey's freest time since the founding of the republic.
Surprising, however, is that in Germany, now the same Christian Democrats, who previously criticized not want their Christian brothers and sisters were systematically tortured in Turkey and suppressed that address this situation suddenly. Now that the country already in the process, is to step away from this inglorious tradition (albeit much too slowly).
Model for Tunisia and Egypt has now Turkey after all, something democratic experience. Finally, there are a democracy since 1950 and a multi-party system - at least formally. And there is a formal ongoing process of accession to the European Union. So you could argue that the situation in Turkey is not comparable to the situation in the Maghreb or in the Arabian Peninsula was.
The protesters and the liberal thinkers in the Arab elites see it differently. They look to Turkey and are focused on whether the relative level of diversity and democracy, there will be continued successfully. Whether in the long run creates an alternative to Turkish Kemalism and its Arab values: the Ben-Ali-cult in Tunisia, to Nasserism, the Pharaohs cult even President Mubarak in Egypt, to Baathism under Saddam Hussein Iraq.
They see Turkey as a direct competitor to Iran and its expansionist ambitions in the region. When one considers how Europe treats Turkey, then one does not feel that their meaning is understood in the West. Neither Europe seems to be aware of the immense tasks ahead for us if still in Egypt to Tunisia, the dictator is sold - and the masses expect from democracy not only freedom but also economic prosperity and social justice.
If risk we do not want that democracy is only an interlude on the way to Islamism, an interlude on the path to a new authoritarian rule, then have to set us on helping to an extent that all previously seen before in the shade. The people of the region deserve to live in democracy and freedom.
Thus it is not a nightmare for Israel, not Iran's dominance, we must now help the liberal forces - and later make sure that the construction of legal and social state is moving forward quickly, so that people do not back away from democracy. Above all, we must finally include the most important regional partner in our development strategy for the Maghreb and the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey.
And this happens mainly because the land is permanently incorporated into the European Union.
No comments:
Post a Comment