New Leadership in Pakistan
August 25th, 2008 by Sarah
Syed Mansoor Hussain at The Daily Times (Pakistan) argues that Pakistan needs a leader with impeccable Islamic credentials, who is “capable of mobilising majority of Pakistanis against the extremists.” Hussain suggests that such a leader would be able to “separate the devout from the extremists, and then rally the former to the cause of fighting against those very extremists.”
Posted in Islamist movements, Pakistan, Terrorism | Comment »
POMED Notes: Implications of Turkey’s Constitutional Court Decision
August 7th, 2008 by Sarah
Yesterday, the Brookings Institution invited Cagri Erhan, Ibrahim Kalin, and Murat Yetkin to discuss the Turkish court’s ruling and its implications for Turkey’s relations with the United States and Europe. Cagri Erhan is Vice President of the Center for Eurasian Strategic Studies, Ibrahim Kalin is the Founding Director of the Foundation for Political, Economic, and Social Research, and Murat Yetkin is a columnist for Radikal, a Turkish publication. Brookings Visiting Fellow and former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Mark Parris moderated the event.
All of the speakers saw the court’s decision as “good step forward for democracy.”
For POMED’s full notes, click here.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Event Notes, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Political Islam, Political Parties, Turkey | Comment »
Recommendations Regarding Islamists
August 7th, 2008 by Sarah
Robert Satloff at Middle East Strategy at Harvard introduces several recommendations made by the late Peter Rodman to policymakers regarding Islamist political groups. Rodman had argued that merely because a group is elected through democratic processes, does not mean that it is democratic; they must also agree to certain liberal principles including ”political pluralism, limitations on government power, guarantees of individual and minority rights, the possibility of alternating parties in office.” Rodman also argued that the best way to encourage moderates is to “demonstrate by our firm resistance that radical policies are counterproductive.” In regard to U.S.-friendly autocrats, Rodman warned “it is not our job to accelerate the delegitimization of friendly governments that seem not to meet our standards, only to have them succeeded by something infinitely worse, as happened in Iran.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Political Islam, Political Parties, US foreign policy | Comment »
Perhaps Not A Victory For Democracy After All
August 5th, 2008 by Sarah
Spencer Boyer and Brian Katulis at the Center for American Progress laud the Turkish Constitutional Court’s recent decision, upholding the constitutionality of the AKP party. “Turkey is as important to the United States as Germany was during the Cold War, serving as a literal and figurative bridge between East and West.” They argue that “Muslim-majority countries all over the world have been watching the complicated interplay between Islam and secular democracy in Turkey, and many have viewed the AKP as an encouraging model for the future.”
However, Zeyno Baran at the Hudson Institute isn’t convinced that the decision is an outright victory for democracy. According to Baran, the AKP party has created a “climate of fear” by conducting government surveillance on its critics, and there is speculation that the Ergenekon case is mere political retribution. Ultimately, Baran warns that if the Ergenekon case turns out to be “mostly a show trial, then those concerned for Turkish democracy and rule of law need to reconsider where Turkey is headed.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Political Islam, Political Parties, Turkey | Comment »
Middle East Metalheads
August 5th, 2008 by Adam
At PostGlobal, Mark Levine takes a look at heavy metal’s appeal to youth in the Muslim world, and how these metal heads and Islamists have some common ideals, despite being at opposing ends of the cultural and political spectrum. Levine says the growing tolerance of metal, “…is partly because the subjects these and other extreme metal bands deal with - death without meaning, the futility of violence, the corruption of power - correspond well to the issues confronting hundreds of millions of young Muslims today.” Even though metal had been persecuted as a subversive subculture, contemporary Islamists are acting less hostile to metal as both cultural movements, “…look critically at their societies, refusing unquestioningly to buy into the myths and shibboleths put forward by political or spiritual leaders.”
Posted in Islamist movements | Comment »
A Victory for Democracy
August 4th, 2008 by Sarah
An editorial in The International Herald Tribune applauds the Turkish Court’s decision to not ban the AKP party. “The court ruling is a victory for Turkey, for democracy and for the politics of moderation in the volatile Near and Middle East. That makes it a victory for the United States as well.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Political Islam, Political Parties, Secularism, Turkey, US foreign policy | Comment »
Saad Eddin Ibrahim Receives Prison Sentence
August 4th, 2008 by Sarah
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, prominant Egyptian dissident and member of POMED’s Board of Advisors, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison, after an Egyptian judge found that Ibrahim’s writings had harmed the country’s reputation. Ibrahim has urged President Bush and Congress to tie financial aid to Egypt to democractic reform, and has accused President Hosni Mubarak of manipulating the country’s peaceful relationship with Israel, as well as fears of Islamist extremism, to keep U.S. aid flowing.
In response to his sentence, Ibrahim states, “my real crime is speaking out in defense of the democratic governance Egyptians deserve.”
Blake Hounshell at FP Passport argues that despite the fact that Ibrahim has a lot of admirers on Capitol Hill, that “with the [Bush administration’s] ‘freedom agenda’ long dead, perhaps Hosni Mubarak’s government….thinks it can get away with it.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Egypt, Foreign Aid, Freedom, Islamist movements, Muslim Brotherhood, POMED, US foreign policy | Comment »
AKP Triumph
July 31st, 2008 by Sarah
An editorial in The Times Online (UK) lauds the Turkish Court’s decision to not ban the AKP party as“showing moderate Islamists in other countries that Islam is compatible with democracy, and that they should and can work within a secular legal framework to achieve their spiritual ends.”
Meanwhile, an editorial in The Wall Street Journal Europe argues that the “Court’s ruling is an opportunity for E.U. leaders to re-engage their large Muslim neighbor” and cites the prospect of E.U. membership as having “done more than anything else to solve some of Turkey’s fundamental problems.”
Posted in Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Political Islam, Political Parties, Secularism, Turkey | Comment »
Response to Wittes
July 31st, 2008 by Sarah
Steven Cook at the Council on Foreign Relations responds to Tamara Cofman Wittes’ article for the Journal of Democracy. Wittes puts forth some criteria to distinguish those Islamist groups that have a genuine commitment to democracy and those who don’t. Cook, however, is skeptical and argues that perhaps Islamist participation in elections “is the result of strategic calculation,” as the “most efficient means of accumulating political power as opposed to say, fomenting revolution or embracing democracy.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Elections, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Political Islam, US foreign policy | Comment »
Turkish Court Decision Upholds AKP Party
July 30th, 2008 by Sarah
Turkey’s highest court has just announced that it will not ban the AKP party as unconstitutional on charges of undermining the country’s secular system. However, Hasim Kilic, the head of the constitutional court, says that the party would instead be deprived of half of its funding from the state treasury and says that “the decision was a warning, a serious warning [to the party].”
Likewise, Wolfgango Piccoli, an analyst with the Eurasia Group, notes “It is certainly a strong warning. The AK Party was not just cut off from funding but also the actual voting of 6 to 5 is a signal. Has it let the AK Party off the hook? That depends on whether they have learned a lesson from what has happened and whether they will be able to show that they are committed to secularism.”
Mithat Sancar, a law professor of Ankara University, suggests that “Cutting the party’s treasury funds means that the evidence for their anti-secular activity was there but not substantial enough to impose a ban. Therefore they warned the party to be careful in their actions to avoid closure in the future.”
Although other parties have been banned in the past by the Turkish Court, Radio Netherlands reports that the case against the AK party was unusual because it marked “the first time it concerned a ruling party with an extensive power base.”
In regard to the decision’s economic consequences, Market Watch reports that after the decision came down, “Turkey’s stocks and currency soared…the decision was among the most market-friendly possible outcomes since it reduces political uncertainty, which had escalated sharply in Turkey in recent months.”
Meanwhile,Win Thin, a senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. remarks that “it’s ironic that the mildly Islamic AKP has been the best thing to happen for the economy and so investors can look forward to a continuation of orthodox policies.”
Others, such as Turkey’s Labor Minister Faruk Celik, said ruling not to ban the ruling AKP Party “was a victory for Turkish democracy.”
E.U. Parliament member, Joost Lagendijk signaled his relief, noting that “closing down AKP on the basis of this indictment clearly goes against European rules on closing down political parties and would have been an anti-democratic decision,” while a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana expressed “hope that the decision by the court will contribute to restore political stability.”
Posted in Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Political Islam, Political Parties, Secularism, Turkey | Comment »
Islamist Parties and Democracy
July 29th, 2008 by Sarah
The Journal of Democracy, of the National Endowment for Democracy, has released this quarter’s issue focusing on “Islamist Parties and Democracy.” Contributors include Tamara Cofman Wittes, Husain Haqqani, and Hillel Fradkin among others.
Wittes provides a more nuanced understanding of Islamist groups, as the “usual division of Islamists into ‘moderate’ and ‘extremist’ categories is less helpful than a threefold classification that suggests a distinct policy approach toward each group.”
Husain Haqqani and Hillel Fradkin explore the paradox of Islamists parties and their roots. “Do such parties thus represent a decisive break with the Islamist past that may portend revisions in other areas of Islamist doctrine as well?”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Political Islam, Political Parties, US foreign policy | Comment »
Morocco’s Islamists and the Problem of Participation
July 28th, 2008 by Adam
The Carnegie Endowment for Peace has an intriguing report by Amr Hamzawy about Morocco’s Islamist, Party for Justice and Development (PJD). Hamzawy sees that the PJD, though entrenched in the nation’s political system, is challenged by various constraints, including the system’s semi-authoritarian nature, the power of the King, and competition to win the Islamist vote. This puts the PJD in a perpetually unstable posture as it must play by the rules to remain politically acceptable to the powers that be, while it cannot be so moderate that it alienates its religiously oriented constituency. Hamzawy mentions that while some of these factors are unique to Morocco, it does highlight the dilemmas faced by Islamist parties seeking peaceful political participation.
Posted in Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Morocco, Political Islam, Political Parties, Reform | Comment »
Islamism and the State
July 25th, 2008 by Amanda
The Journal of Democracy examines the role of Islamist parties in the political process across the Middle East. Tamara Coffman Wittes of the Brookings Institution highlights “The Three Kind of Movements” in political Islam, from the moderate forces of the Muslim Brotherhood to the extreme, and to the “nationalist” groups like Hezbollah of Lebanon.
Continuing on the topic of Islamism and the state, The Economist covers the controversy among Muslims about the the consequences for apostates of the faith. Grand mufti Ali Gomaa of Egypt cites Quranic verses permitting the conversion of Muslims to another faith, namely that ‘there is no compulsion in religion’.
Posted in Egypt, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements | Comment »
Morocco’s Islamist Party Selects Moderate Leader
July 23rd, 2008 by Sarah
Morocco’s Islamist Justice and Development Party has selected Abdelilah Benkiran, a leading moderate figure, as the group’s new leader replacing Saad Eddine Othmani.
Ahmad Hamouch at IslamOnline.net notes Benkiran’s moderate position and points to his focus “on the everyday concerns rather than on religious agenda,” which Benkiran describes as “inspired by our Islamic background but a religious background linked to the citizen’s needs…The citizens suffer from poverty, unemployment, a housing crisis and problems in education and healthcare.”
Democracy Digest notes, however, that the PJD faces criticism from “radical Islamists opposed to its accommodation with the state and from secular democrats who believe that, despite its incremental approach, the party retains a commitment to ultimately implementing sharia law.”
Posted in Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Morocco, Political Islam, Political Parties | Comment »
POMED Notes: Islamist Parties and Democracy
July 22nd, 2008 by Sarah
Yesterday, the International Forum for Democratic Studies and the National Endowment for Democracy invited Hillel Fradkin, Amr Hamzawy, Laith Kubba, and Tamara Cofman Wittes to assess the rise of Islamist parties and its implications for democracy in the region. All of the speakers agreed with Wittes’ statement that Islamist parties “are not evolving in a vacuum. The U.S. is part of this, and rather than just sitting here, we must take responsibility for what happens next.”
Marc Plattner of the International Forum for Democratic Studies and Vice President at the National Endowment for Democracy moderated the event.
For POMED’s full notes, click here.
Posted in Event Notes, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Political Islam, Political Parties, US foreign policy | Comment »
Turkey’s Political Crisis
July 22nd, 2008 by Sarah
In the Winter edition of Dissent Magazine, Daniele Castellani Perelli interviews Yale political scientist Seyla Benhabib about the state of Turkish political affairs.
Benhabib is skeptical about claims that the AKP party secretly wishes to use Turkey’s democratic institutions in order to implement an Islamic theocracy, but is also unconvinced that Turkey can serve as a model for other Muslim nations. “In general, the secular model of development through state-run elites…has become frayed. It is not working.”
For an excellent review of the political scene in Turkey, check out this interesting article in The Economist.
And remember, POMED is hosting an event entitled “Turkey’s Political Crisis: Implications for the Middle East” on Thursday, July 24th at 2pm at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2212. For more details, click here.
Posted in Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Turkey | Comment »
Undermining the Palestinian Movement
July 21st, 2008 by Adam
Omran Risheq at the Daily Star writes an interesting piece about how disillusionment with the Palestinian national movement and chances for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict have bolstered the political fortunes of Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami, a Salafist movement seeking restoration of the Caliphate. The party rejects modern conceptions of human rights and democracy, and has gained credibility with Palestinians as the lack progress on peace has undermined other groups’ ability to claim they can end the occupation.
Posted in Islamist movements, Mideast Peace Plan, Palestine | Comment »
The Future of Turkey’s Political Landscape
July 17th, 2008 by Sarah
Bitter Lemons hosts a debate on Turkey’s political future.
Soli Ozel examines the highly-explosive AKP and Ergenekon cases and argues that“the old authoritarian republican order and mindset are incapable of rejuvenation.” However, Ozel also suggests that the AKP “lacks the imagination and the commitment needed to forge a new consensus [to] propel Turkey forward in a liberal-democratic direction.”
Ersin Kalaycioglu describes Turkey’s divided political backdrop as a “kulturkampf of secularists” versus a “kulturkampf of traditional religious conservatives.” Ultimately, Kalaycioglu argues that the conflict undermines the legitimacy of Turkey’s government, makes democratization more difficult, and turns the rule of law into merely a tool in a power struggle.
Yet Fadi Hakura seems optimistic, arguing that “Islamic and secular values are apparently converging among the Turkish people.” This, combined with plummeting popular support for all major political parties and the “unprecedented silence of the military,” leads Hakura to believe that “Turkey could be on the cusp of a novel style of politics.”
Posted in Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Judiciary, Political Islam, Political Parties, Turkey | Comment »
Political Drama in Turkey Continues
July 9th, 2008 by Adam
The recent arrests of 23 secular nationalists, including two prominent retired generals, in a coup attempt last week has altered the Turkish political dynamic already in flux due to the court case to ban the ruling AKP. The fact that the military did not come out against these arrests signals a change in a country where hypernationalists have had relative freedom to act. “The arrests have ‘changed the political landscape in the country for good in favor of civilian supremacy in the balance of power,’ says Soli Ozel, a political scientist at Istanbul Bilgi University.”
On a related note, in an article at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Soner Cagaptay sees the recent foiled coup as highlighting the struggle between secular and pro-AKP elites for Turkey’s political soul. Unlike the AKP’s predecessor, the AKP has strong enough financial and political connections with the business community, the media, and the nation’s security forces for it to continue to fight on. This would be dangerous, Cagaptay says, as it would lead Turkey down a gradual path towards authoritarianism.
Posted in Islamist movements, Turkey | Comment »
Egyptian Politics
July 7th, 2008 by Sarah
Almasry Alyoum reports on an Egyptian opinion poll, where a majority claim that the Egyptian government ignores the country’s economic problems, corruption, deviation, and crime. A significant percentage found the People’s Assembly to be ineffective and that the government is either unfair or despotic.
Meanwhile, RearVision (Australia) hosts an interesting interview with Tariq Ramadan, Gilles Kepel, Joshua Stacher and Matthias Küntzel on the history of the Muslim Brotherhood, where it came from, why it has been banned for the past 50 years, and what it stands for today.
Posted in Egypt, Elections, Freedom, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Parties, Publications | Comment »
