« Should We Just Call It Eurabia Now And Be Done With It? | Main | Italian Minister urges fines over Muslim robe as Bush urged not to play the dhimmi »
June 7, 2005
To Islamists, one man, one vote, one time, means dictatorship - Are Europe And America Listening?
By embracing Islamists in Iran, President Jimmy Carter replaced one dictatorship with another. Is the Bush administration's flirtation with Arab Islamists risking a repeat of the same mistake and are they deluding themselves in thinking that the Islamists embrace democracy or that they can be trusted? Has the Bush administration ignored history in realizing that "engaging any group that has been involved in terror only legitimizes the violence that propelled that group to prominence?"
While the Bush administration has treated some of the Middle East's autocrats' (such as the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, and the Palestinian territories) commitments for democracy with some skepticism, it refuses to extend the same cynicism to Islamist groups, "many of which embrace elections but cast aside democratic values. In 1992, for example, Ali Belhadj, a leader of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, declared: "When we are in power, there will be no more elections because God will be ruling.""
According to Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, editor of the Middle East Quarterly, "The Bush administration's flirtation with Arab Islamists risks repeating Jimmy Carter's mistake(I know, you're wondering just which one was that, considering his fiasco in korea). Washington should push for democracy, but only work with groups willing to abide by democratic precepts." In other words, the Bush administration should stop helping the Islamists move along on their agenda to make dhimmis out of all of us that are not Islamists - and don't plan to be.
[...]
... Washington's infatuation with Islamists has emboldened such groups and deflated the morale of democrats. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice bolstered the legitimacy of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq when she invited its leader to the White House. This invitation signaled that the Bush administration endorsed the Islamist group over more democratic movements, and suggested to the Supreme Council that an ephemeral embrace of democracy was sufficient. Today, gangs belonging to the Supreme Council enforce Islamic law on cities like Basra and Kut, breaking up student picnics and tearing down posters championing other groups.
... for democracy to succeed, all parties have to embrace not only elections as the path to power, but also regular subservience to the electorate as their master. Because Islamists base their legitimacy upon a higher power, they are intrinsically anti-democratic and unwilling to accept popular rebuke. One man, one vote, one time makes dictatorship, not democracy.
Read Michael's entire article in Lebanon's Daily Star ...
As to the answer to the question of whether or not the Bush administration's flirtation with Arab Islamists is risking a repeat of the same mistake(s) as Jimmy Carter, the answer is clearly a resounding yes!
But the Bush administration isn't the only government suffering under delusions when it comes to the Islamists. Amir Taheri claims that the Europeans are also victims of their own delusions, and says that their policy on Iran is based on a logical contradiction and a number of illusions. Read about them at American Future and ask yourself if Taheri forgot to include the Bush administration in his commentary on Europe.
cross posted by Hyscience
Posted by Richard at June 7, 2005 2:28 PM
