Keep your democracy, we have Allah!

More musings on democracy, the Middle East and how Nicholas Kristof gets it all wrong. 

Freedom in the Middle East: Does it mean Jeffersonian Democracy?

Nicholas Kristof (Feb 28, 2011) asks the question “Are Arabs too politically immature to handle democracy?”  He is on the right track but going the wrong way.  The correct question to ask should be: do Muslims and Islam understand democracy as we in the West do?

The short answer is no, Islam and democracy do not mix.  The long answer is also no, as Islamic doctrine does not allow for democratic values or the kinds of freedoms we take for granted.  As there is no separation between mosque and state, as sharia law is the only legal system accepted in Islam, as women are second-class citizens within Islam, as the will of the people is usurped by the will of Allah it is folly to assume that the Islamic countries experiencing upheaval will turn from the way of Islam to the way of Jefferson.

As Robert Spencer points out in Human Events (Feb 28) the coming of Western ethics may “…be pro-democracy insofar as they want the will of the people to be heard, but given their world view, their frame of reference, and their core assumptions about the world, if that popular will is heard, it will likely result in huge victories for the Muslim Brotherhood and similar pro-Sharia groups.”

The worldview of Islam, insofar as we believe is one of tolerance, freedom, equal rights and democracy.  Islam, unfortunately tells us different.  Ayman al-Zawahiri, second-in-command of Al-Qaeda says “…al-Qaeda views democracy as anathema to Islam.”  A recent Pew poll showed over 80% of Egyptians want an Islamic government, and in Pakistan the seeds of sharia and Islamic doctrine are sprouting, with Junaid Khan, an engineering student at the National University of Science and Technology, saying “In Pakistan, democracy and dictatorship have been tried and failed. Now it is time to bring in an Islamic system.” 

Democracy in Islamic countries is useless to talk about, a dead-end political discussion with no winner.  As Mr. Kristof wants us to believe, it is only a matter of whether Islamic countries are “immature” enough to handle democracy, not if they actually believe in democracy in the Jeffersonian sense. 

Yes there are hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for reforms and the ouster of their present leader, can anyone blame them?  The West has a history of propping up unpleasant despots for many reasons, but we have always given these puppies the slack they wanted and needed to hang themselves, if the time presented itself.  Those on the street, as angry as they might be at the current situation, believe no less in Islam controlling their lives as do we believe in the principles of the constitution and bill of rights guiding us.

Nicholas Kristof seems dedicated to teach all of us that democracy is the same all over the world, and that if we do not give these new voices credit for bringing freedom, justice and democracy then we are as much the bigot as we can be.  Forgetting for a moment that 1400 years of Islamic doctrine demands the conversion, subjugation or death of non-Muslims, what does being immature have to do with remaking a government?  If the people want us out, so be it.  If the people want Islamic law and an Islamic society, let them have it.  But do not try to tell us that we can get along if we believe that democracy, when it takes hold in the Middle East, will be the end-all of a new peace. 

For the West, what we know as freedom and democracy provides us with those little things: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  For Islam, there is only one God, and only one prophet and the rules set out in 622AD must be upheld.  Those rules will not mesh with ours, and when we realize, too late of course, that our expected Middle East democracy is Islamic justice it will be way past time to affect any change.

Muslims and Islamic states are not so much immature as pragmatic, and their worldview is one of “our way or the highway”.  If we stand for democratic principles in Islamic countries, we will lose what we so desperately want to gain.