Egypt: A test of democratic rhetoric

[PsychoDad]

An interesting opinion piece. Not all "Islamists" are the same and any democratically elected middle eastern government will derive it's legitimacy from Islam and not in spite of it.. possibly to the chagrin of the west.

Egypt: A test of democratic rhetoric
By Soumaya Ghannoushi
Sunday 11 December 2005, 11:08 Makka Time, 8:08 GMT

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/1A453713-B879-483B-94ED-B389BD7D254D.htm

In the recent Egyptian elections, the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest and largest Islamic movement in the Arab world, has succeeded in winning approximately one third of the votes, even though the organization, which continues to be banned in Egypt, had confined itself to contesting 144 out of the 454 parliamentary seats to avoid aggravating the government.

This result came in spite of the widespread violations that have marred the elections, ranging from the arrests of hundreds of Brotherhood activists, to the police blocking polling stations and shooting tear gas, and thugs wielding machetes, knives and guns to terrorise voters, while the police stood by.

The Egyptian case is the rule not the exception. Wherever relatively free and credible elections have been held in the region, mainstream Islamism has emerged as the principal player.
...

The tendency to lump the great Islamist mosaic under the vague and obscure heading of Islamic fundamentalism leaves us in a conceptual vacuum, unable to decipher its complexity and make sense of its many variations.
Islamism, just like Socialism is not a uniform entity. It characterises an intensely colourful socio-political phenomenon with different strategies and discourses.
...

What is common to these different trends is that they all derive their source of legitimacy from Islam, just as the Latin American anarchist guerrillas, the Social Democrats, Marxists, and Third way Blairites base theirs on Socialism. To view this broad canvass through the lens of Bin Laden or al-Zarqawi is nothing short of absurd.

...

The grand slogans of democracy and good governance in the Middle East are being tested today on the Egyptian soil.

What continues to be missing in the region, it seems, are not the forces of democracy, or the culture of democracy, but the international will to allow democratic change to take place. What we need is to bridge the gap between a sweet rhetoric and a gruesome, bitter reality.




Any thoughts?