kirglik demokraadid : Islamismi ja demokraatia EGIPTUS, Indoneesia ja TÜRGI

Hirm islamistide võimuletulekut valimiste kaudu on pikka aega olnud takistuseks demokratiseerimise autoritaarsetes riikides moslemimaailma. Islamistid on, ja jätkuvalt, kõige paremini korraldatud ja kõige usaldusväärsema opositsiooniliikumise paljudes neist riikidest.

They are also commonly, if not always correctly, assumed to be in the best position to capitalise on any democratic opening of their political systems. At the same time, the commitment of Islamists to democracy is often questioned. Tõepoolest, when it comes to democracy, Islamism’s intellectual heritage and historical record (in terms of the few examples of Islamist-led states, such as Sudan and Iran) have not been reassuring. The apparent strength of Islamist movements, combined with suspicions about Islamism’s democratic compatibility, has been used by authoritarian governments as an argument to defl ect both domestic and international calls for political reform and democratisation.

Domestically, secular liberals have preferred to settle for nominally secular dictatorships over potentially religious ones. Internationally, Western governments have preferred friendly autocrats to democratically elected, but potentially hostile, Islamist-led governments.

The goal of this paper is to re-examine some of the assumptions about the risks of democratisation in authoritarian countries of the Muslim world (and not just in the Middle East) where strong Islamist movements or parties exist.