Všechny záznamy v "Spojené státy & Evropa" Kategorie
Islám a demokracie: Text, Tradition, and History
Ahrar Ahmad
Popular stereotypes in the West tend to posit a progressive, rational, and free West against a backward, oppressive, and threatening Islam. Public opinion polls conducted in the United States during the 1990s revealed a consistent pattern of Americans labeling Muslims as “religious fanatics” and considering Islam’s ethos as fundamentally “anti-democratic.”1 These characterizations
and misgivings have, for obvious reasons, significantly worsened since the tragedy of 9/11. Nicméně, these perceptions are not reflected merely in the popular consciousness or crude media representations. Respected scholars also have contributed to this climate of opinion by writing about the supposedly irreconcilable differences between Islam and the West, the famous “clash of civilizations” that is supposed to be imminent and inevitable, and about the seeming incompatibility between Islam and democracy. Například, Professor Peter Rodman worries that “we are challenged from the outside by a militant atavistic force driven by hatred of all Western political thought harking back to age-old grievances against Christendom.” Dr. Daniel Pipes proclaims that the Muslims challenge the West more profoundly than the communists ever did, for “while the Communists disagree with our policies, the fundamentalist Muslims despise our whole way of life.” Professor Bernard Lewis warns darkly about “the historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo–Christian heritage, our secular present, and the expansion of both.” Professor Amos Perlmutter asks: “Is Islam, fundamentalist or otherwise, compatible with human-rights oriented Western style representative democracy? The answer is an emphatic NO.” And Professor Samuel Huntington suggests with a flourish that “the problem is not Islamic fundamentalism, but Islam itself.” It would be intellectually lazy and simple-minded to dismiss their positions as based merely on spite or prejudice. Ve skutečnosti, if one ignores some rhetorical overkill, some of their charges, though awkward for Muslims, are relevant to a discussion of the relationship between Islam and democracy in the modern world. Například, the position of women or sometimes non-Muslims in some Muslim countries is problematic in terms of the supposed legal equality of all people in a democracy. Podobně, the intolerance directed by some Muslims against writers (e.g., Salman Rushdie in the UK, Taslima Nasrin in Bangladesh, and Professor Nasr Abu Zaid in Egypt) ostensibly jeopardizes the principle of free speech, which is essential to a democracy.
It is also true that less than 10 of the more than 50 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference have institutionalized democratic principles or processes as understood in the West, and that too, only tentatively. Konečně, the kind of internal stability and external peace that is almost a prerequisite for a democracy to function is vitiated by the turbulence of internal implosion or external aggression evident in many Muslim countries today (e.g., Somálsko, Súdán, Indonésie, Pákistán, Irák, Afghánistán, Alžírsko, and Bosnia).
| září 04, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Irák a budoucnost politického islámu
James Piscatori
Před 65 lety položil jeden z největších učenců moderního islámu jednoduchou otázku, „Kam islám?“, kam šel islámský svět? Byla to doba intenzivního zmatku v západním i muslimském světě – zánik imperialismu a krystalizace nového státního systému mimo Evropu; vytvoření a testování neo- Wilsonův světový řád ve Společnosti národů; nástup evropského fašismu. Sir Hamilton Gibb uznal, že muslimské společnosti, nelze se takovým světovým trendům vyhnout, byli také konfrontováni se stejně nevyhnutelným pronikáním nacionalismu, sekularismus, a westernizace. I když prozíravě varoval před předpovídáním – nebezpečím pro nás všechny, kteří se zajímají o blízkovýchodní a islámskou politiku – byl si jistý dvěma věcmi.:
(A) islámský svět by se pohyboval mezi ideálem solidarity a realitou rozdělení;
(b) klíč k budoucnosti spočíval ve vedení, nebo kdo autoritativně mluví za islám.
Dnes mohou Gibbovy prognózy znovu nabýt relevance, protože čelíme prohlubující se krizi ohledně Iráku, rozvíjení rozsáhlé a kontroverzní války proti terorismu, a pokračující palestinský problém. V této přednášce bych se rád podíval na faktory, které mohou ovlivnit chod muslimské politiky v současnosti a blízké budoucnosti.. I když body, které uvedu, budou mít pravděpodobně širší význam, Budu čerpat především z případu arabského světa.
Předpoklady o politickém islámu Pokud jde o zpolitizovaný islám nebo islamismus, nechybí předpovědi. „Islamismus“ je nejlépe chápán jako pocit, že se v současných muslimských společnostech něco pokazilo a že řešení musí spočívat v řadě politických akcí.. Často se používá zaměnitelně s „fundamentalismem“, Islamismus je lépe ztotožňován s „politickým islámem“. Několik komentátorů prohlásilo její zánik a nástup postislamistické éry. Argumentují tím, že represivní aparát státu se ukázal odolnější než islámská opozice a že ideologická nesoudržnost islamistů je učinila nevhodnými pro moderní politickou konkurenci.. Zdálo se, že události z 11. září této předpovědi odporují, dosud, neotřesený, tvrdili, že je to tak velkolepé, prakticky anarchické činy jen dokazují bankrot islamistických myšlenek a naznačují, že radikálové opustili jakoukoli skutečnou naději na převzetí moci.
| září 04, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Islám a demokracie
ITAC
Pokud člověk čte tisk nebo poslouchá komentátory mezinárodních záležitostí, často se říká – a ještě častěji naznačeno, ale neříká se – že islám není slučitelný s demokracií. V devadesátých letech, Samuel Huntington spustil intelektuální bouři, když vydal knihu Střet civilizací a přetvoření světového řádu, ve kterém prezentuje své předpovědi pro svět – writ large. V politické sféře, poznamenává, že zatímco Turecko a Pákistán mohou mít nějaký malý nárok na „demokratickou legitimitu“, všechny ostatní „... muslimské země byly v drtivé většině nedemokratické: monarchií, systémy jedné strany, vojenské režimy, osobní diktatury nebo jejich kombinace, obvykle spočívá na omezené rodině, klan, nebo kmenová základna“. Premisa, na které je jeho argument založen, je ten, že nejen že „nejsou jako my“, jsou ve skutečnosti v rozporu s našimi základními demokratickými hodnotami. On věří, stejně jako ostatní, že zatímco v jiných částech světa se myšlence západní demokratizace brání, konfrontace je nejpozoruhodnější v těch oblastech, kde je dominantní vírou islám.
Argument zazněl i z druhé strany. Íránský náboženský učenec, reflektující ústavní krizi v jeho zemi na počátku dvacátého století, prohlásil, že islám a demokracie nejsou kompatibilní, protože lidé si nejsou rovni a zákonodárný orgán je zbytečný kvůli inkluzivní povaze islámského náboženského práva. Podobný postoj nedávno zaujal Ali Belhadj, alžírský středoškolský učitel, kazatel a (v tomto kontextu) vůdce FIS, když prohlásil „demokracie není islámský koncept“. Snad nejdramatičtějším prohlášením v tomto smyslu bylo prohlášení Abú Musaba al-Zarkávího, vůdce sunnitských povstalců v Iráku, který, když stojí před vyhlídkou na volby, odsuzoval demokracii jako „zlý princip“.
Ale podle některých muslimských učenců, demokracie zůstává důležitým ideálem islámu, s výhradou, že vždy podléhá náboženskému právu. Důraz na prvořadé místo šaría je prvkem téměř každého islámského komentáře o vládnutí., umírněný nebo extremistický. Pouze pokud vládce, který přijímá svou autoritu od Boha, omezuje své jednání na „dohled nad správou šaría“, má být uposlechnut. Pokud dělá něco jiného než toto, je nevěřící a oddaní muslimové se proti němu mají bouřit. Zde leží ospravedlnění pro většinu násilí, které sužuje muslimský svět v takových bojích, jaké panovaly v Alžírsku v 90.
| září 04, 2010 | Komentáře 0
GLOBALIZATION AND POLITICAL ISLAM: THE SOCIAL BASES OF TURKEY’S WELFARE PARTY
Haldun Gulalp
Political Islam has gained heightened visibility in recent decades in Turkey. Large numbers of female students have begun to demonstrate their commitment by wearing the banned Islamic headdress on university campuses, and influential pro-Islamist TV
channels have proliferated. This paper focuses on the Welfare (Refah) Party as the foremost institutional representative of political Islam in Turkey.
The Welfare Party’s brief tenure in power as the leading coalition partner from mid-1996 to mid-1997 was the culmination of a decade of steady growth that was aided by other Islamist organizations and institutions. These organizations and institutions
included newspapers and publishing houses that attracted Islamist writers, numerous Islamic foundations, an Islamist labor-union confederation, and an Islamist businessmen’s association. These institutions worked in tandem with, and in support of, Welfare as the undisputed leader and representative of political Islam in Turkey, even though they had their own particularistic goals and ideals, which often diverged from Welfare’s political projects. Focusing on the Welfare Party, then, allows for an analysis of the wider social base upon which the Islamist political movement rose in Turkey. Since Welfare’s ouster from power and its eventual closure, the Islamist movement has been in disarray. Tento papír bude, proto, be confined to the Welfare Party period.
Welfare’s predecessor, the National Salvation Party, was active in the 1970s but was closed down by the military regime in 1980. Welfare was founded in 1983 and gained great popularity in the 1990s. Starting with a 4.4 percent vote in the municipal elections of 1984, the Welfare Party steadily increased its showing and multiplied its vote nearly five times in twelve years. It alarmed Turkey’s secular establishment first in the municipal elections of 1994, with 19 percent of all votes nationwide and the mayor’s seats in both Istanbul and Ankara, then in the general elections of 1995 when it won a plurality with 21.4 percent of the national vote. Nevertheless, the Welfare Party was only briefly able to lead a coalition government in partnership with the right-wing True Path Party of Tansu C¸ iller.
| září 03, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime
JONATHAN GITHENS-Mazer
ROBERT LAMBERT MBE
The perils of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime threaten to undermine basic human rights, fundamental aspects of citizenship and co-existing partnerships for Muslims and non- Muslims alike in contemporary Europe. Routine portrayals of Islam as a religion of hatred, violence and inherent intolerance have become key planks for the emergence of extremist nationalist, anti-immigration politics in Europe – planks which seek to exploit populist fears and which have the potential to lead to Muslim disempowerment in Europe. Sections of the media have created a situation where the one serves to heighten the unfounded claims and anxieties of the other – such that politicians from Austria to the Britain, and the Netherlands to Spain, feel comfortable in using terms like “Tsunamis of Muslim immigration”, and accuse Islam of being a fundamental threat to a “European way of life”. While in many cases, the traction of this populist approach reflects an ignorance of Islamic faith, practice and belief, there are many think-tanks which are currently engaged in promoting erroneous depictions of Islam and Muslim political beliefs through unsubstantiated and academically baseless studies, and a reliance on techniques such as ‘junk-polling’. Prior to researching Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime in London, we worked with Muslim Londoners to research the contested notion of what is widely termed by academics and policy makers as “violent radicalisation” (Githens-Mazer, 2010, Lambert 2010). To a large extent it was that prior research experience that persuaded us to embark on this new project. That is to say, there is an important link between the two areas
of work which we should explain at the outset. Since 9/11 Muslim Londoners, no less than Muslims in towns and cities across Europe, have often been unfairly stigmatised as subversive threats to state security and social cohesion, sometimes characterised as a fifth column (Cox and Marks 2006, Gove 2006, Mayer and Frampton 2009). We do not suggest that this stigmatisation did not exist before 9/11, still less do we argue that it revolves solely around the issues of security and social cohesion, but we do claim that the response to 9/11 – ‘the war on terror’ – and much of the rhetoric that has surrounded it has played a significant part in increasing the public perception of European Muslims as potential enemies rather than potential partners and neighbours.
| září 02, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Conflicts over Mosques in Europe
Stefano Studenti
As the reader will immediately see, the present study is the only one in the series not to have a general point of reference. Instead of addressing a broad issue such as places of worship, it focuses right from the outset on a single issue: the question of mosques, which is identified as a separate issue with its own specific characteristics.
This approach faithfully reflects the current state of affairs, as we will demonstrate in the pages below. Although forms of discrimination on the basis of religion are not completely absent – in particular, cases of discrimination towards certain minority religions or religious beliefs, some of which have even come before the European courts – in no country and in no other case has the opening of places of worship taken on such a high profile in the public imagination as the question of mosques and Islamic places of worship. With the passage of time, the question of mosques has led to more and more frequent disputes, debates, conflicts and posturing, even in countries where such conflicts were previously unknown and mosques were already present. This simple fact already puts us on a road that we might define as ‘exceptionalism’ with reference to Islam: a tendency to see Islam and Muslims as an exceptional case rather than a standard one; a case that does not sit comfortably with others relating to religious pluralism, a
which therefore requires special bodies, actions and specifically targeted reactions, unlike those used for other groups and religious minorities, a (as in the present study) specific research. 8 Conflicts over mosques in Europe An example of this exceptionalism is seen in the forms of representation of Islam in various European countries, which vary from case to case but differ, zejména, with respect to the recognized practices of relations between states and religious denominations in general. The most symbolic case is the creation in various countries, such as France, Španělsko, Belgium and Italy, of collective bodies of Islamic representation, with forms that often contradict the principles of non‑interference in the internal affairs of religious communities proclaimed and enshrined for other denominations and religious minorities. Forms of exceptionalism from a legal, political and social perspective are, nicméně, present in many other fields, following a pervasive trend which affects countries with the widest range of state structures and which appears to be in a phase of further growth.
This situation, together with the increasingly evident emergence into the public arena of the dynamics of a conflict involving Islam (a kind of conflict in which the construction of mosques is the most frequent and widespread cause of disagreement), led to a desire to analyse recent cases of conflict, including clashes in countries that are regarded as peripheral within the European Union (EU) nebo
that lie beyond its borders. For this reason, we have chosen, contrary to the usual practice, to pay closest attention to the least studied and analysed countries, for which scientific literature is least abundant. Setting off on this supposition, we believe that meaningful data for the interpretation of broader dynamics may emerge from an extensive analysis of the frequency and pervasiveness of these conflicts, which are also affecting countries with a long history of immigration and are more generally affecting the relationship between Islam and Europe.For this reason we conducted a set of empirical investigations across seven European countries that are among the least studied and least known in this respect. We selected three Mediterranean countries which in certain respects vary greatly from one another: two countries in similar situations, where there is new immigration from Muslim countries and the memory of ancient historical domination (Spain and Italy); and one in which there is new immigration
from Muslim countries along with a significant historical Islamic presence (the memory of Turkish Ottoman domination) that poses a number of problems (Greece). Also chosen were two countries which have a very significant historical Islamic presence but which also face a number of new problems (Austria and Bosnia‑Herzegovina); the Nordic country with the largest Islamic presence (Sweden); and a central European country which has a long history of immigration and a particular institutional nature (Belgie). The last of these is also notable for its markedly local management of conflicts, which from a methodological perspective makes it an interesting control group.
| září 02, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Egypt at the Tipping Point ?
David B. Ottaway
In the early 1980s, I lived in Cairo as bureau chief of The Washington Post covering such historic events as the withdrawal of the last
Israeli forces from Egyptian territory occupied during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and the assassination of President
Anwar Sadat by Islamic fanatics in October 1981.
The latter national drama, which I witnessed personally, had proven to be a wrenching milestone. It forced Sadat’s successor, Hosni Mubarak, to turn inwards to deal with an Islamist challenge of unknown proportions and effectively ended Egypt’s leadership role in the Arab world.
Mubarak immediately showed himself to be a highly cautious, unimaginative leader, maddeningly reactive rather than pro-active in dealing with the social and economic problems overwhelming his nation like its explosive population growth (1.2 million more Egyptians a year) and economic decline.
In a four-part Washington Post series written as I was departing in early 1985, I noted the new Egyptian leader was still pretty much
a total enigma to his own people, offering no vision and commanding what seemed a rudderless ship of state. The socialist economy
inherited from the era of President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1952 na 1970) was a mess. The country’s currency, the pound, was operating
on eight different exchange rates; its state-run factories were unproductive, uncompetitive and deep in debt; and the government was heading for bankruptcy partly because subsidies for food, electricity and gasoline were consuming one-third ($7 miliarda) svého rozpočtu. Káhira se ponořila do beznadějné bažiny blokované dopravy a hemžícího se lidstva – 12 milionů lidí se vtěsnalo do úzkého pásu země hraničící s řekou Nil., většina žijících tváří v tváři v zchátralých činžovních domech ve stále se rozšiřujících městských slumech.
| září 02, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Muslimské souostroví
Max L. Hrubé
This book has been many years in the making, as the author explains in his Preface, though he wrote most of the actual text during his year as senior Research Fellow with the Center for Strategic Intelligence Research. The author was for many years Dean of the School of Intelligence Studies at the Joint Military Intelligence College. Even though it may appear that the book could have been written by any good historian or Southeast Asia regional specialist, this work is illuminated by the author’s more than three decades of service within the national Intelligence Community. His regional expertise often has been applied to special assessments for the Community. With a knowledge of Islam unparalleled among his peers and an unquenchable thirst for determining how the goals of this religion might play out in areas far from the focus of most policymakers’ current attention, the author has made the most of this opportunity to acquaint the Intelligence Community and a broader readership with a strategic appreciation of a region in the throes of reconciling secular and religious forces.
This publication has been approved for unrestricted distribution by the Office of Security Review, Department of Defense.
| Srpna 27, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Islámská víra v AMERICE
JAMES. Beverley
AMERICA BEGINS A NEW MILLENNIUM AS ONE OF THE MOST RELIGIOUSLY diverse nations of all time. Nowhere else in the world do so many people—offered a choice free from government influence—identify with such a wide range of religious and spiritual communities. Nowhere else has the human search for meaning been so varied. In America today, there are communities and centers for worship representing all of the world’s religions.
The American landscape is dotted with churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques. Zen Buddhist zendos sit next to Pentecostal tabernacles. Hasidic Jews walk the streets with Hindu swamis. Most amazing of all, relatively little conflict has occurred among religions in America. This fact, combined with a high level of tolerance of each other’s beliefs and practices, has let America produce people of goodwill ready to try to resolve any tensions that might emerge. The Faith in America series celebrates America’s diverse religious heritage.
People of faith and ideals who longed for a better world have created a unique society where freedom of religious expression is a keynote of culture. The freedom that America offers to people of faith means that not only have ancient religions found a home
here, but that newer ways of expressing spirituality have also taken root. From huge churches in large cities to small spiritual communities in towns and villages, faith in America has never been stronger. The paths that different religions have taken through
American history is just one of the stories readers will find in this series. Like anything people create, religion is far from perfect. Nicméně, its contribution to the culture and its ability to help people are impressive, and these accomplishments will be found in all the books in the series. Mezitím, awareness and tolerance of the different paths our neighbors take to the spiritual life has become an increasingly important part of citizenship in America.
Dnes, more than ever, America as a whole puts its faith in freedom—the freedom to believe.
| Srpna 21, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Energizující vztahy mezi USA a Sýrií: Využití pomocných diplomatických vozidel
Benjamin E. Moc,
Andrew Akhlaghi,
Steven Rotchtin
Vyhlídky na větší stabilitu na Blízkém východě do značné míry závisí na schopnosti zapojit Sýrii do diplomatických a bezpečnostních diskusí jako produktivní zúčastněnou stranu., vyžadující rozmrazení v méně než normálním stavu v USA. – syrské vztahy. Zatímco Sýrie
význam jako klíčového státu pro mírový proces na Blízkém východě byl uznán v 2006 Zpráva Irácké studijní skupiny,1 která volala po posunu od demotivačních k pobídkám při hledání konstruktivních výsledků, pouze v posledních několika měsících došlo k prokazatelnému posunu v postojích Washingtonu. Nedávná setkání mezi vysoce postavenými U.S. úředníků a jejich protějšků v Damašku, and even the announcement of reinstating a U.S. ambassador to Syria, have led to widespread speculation in policy circles that a diplomatic thaw is afoot.
This report analyzes key trends in Syria’s domestic and regional socio-political situation that currently function to make Syria a natural ally of the United States.
| Srpna 13, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Islám a Západ
Preface
John J. DeGioia
The remarkable feeling of proximity between people and nations is the unmistakable reality of our globalized world. Encounters with other peoples’ ways oflife, current affairs, politika, welfare and faithsare more frequent than ever. We are not onlyable to see other cultures more clearly, butalso to see our differences more sharply. The information intensity of modern life has madethis diversity of nations part of our every dayconsciousness and has led to the centrality ofculture in discerning our individual and collectiveviews of the world.Our challenges have also become global.The destinies of nations have become deeply interconnected. No matter where in the world we live, we are touched by the successes and failures of today’s global order. Yet our responses to global problems remain vastly different, not only as a result of rivalry and competing interests,but largely because our cultural difference is the lens through which we see these global challenges.Cultural diversity is not necessarily a source of clashes and conflict. Ve skutečnosti, the proximity and cross-cultural encounters very often bring about creative change – a change that is made possible by well-organized social collaboration.Collaboration across borders is growing primarily in the area of business and economic activity. Collaborative networks for innovation,production and distribution are emerging as the single most powerful shaper of the global economy.
| Srpna 11, 2010 | Komentáře 0
proč neexistují arabské demokracie ?
Larry Diamond
During democratization’s “third wave,” democracy ceased being a mostly Western phenomenon and “went global.” When the third wave began in 1974, the world had only about 40 democracies, and only a few of them lay outside the West. By the time the Journal of Democracy began publishing in 1990, there were 76 electoral democracies (accounting for slightly less than half the world’s independent states). Podle 1995, that number had shot up to 117—three in every five states. By then, a critical mass of democracies existed in every major world region save one—the Middle East.1 Moreover, every one of the world’s major cultural realms had become host to a significant democratic presence, i když opět s jedinou výjimkou — arabským světem.2 O patnáct let později, tato výjimka stále platí.
Pokračující absence byť jediného demokratického režimu v arabském světě je nápadná anomálie – hlavní výjimka z globalizace demokracie.. Proč neexistuje arabská demokracie? Vskutku, proč je tomu tak, že mezi šestnácti nezávislými arabskými státy Blízkého východu a pobřežní severní Afriky, Libanon je jediný, kdo kdy byl demokracií?
Nejčastějším předpokladem deficitu arabské demokracie je, že musí mít něco společného s náboženstvím nebo kulturou. Po všem, jediná věc, kterou všechny arabské země sdílejí, je, že jsou arabské.
| Srpna 07, 2010 | Komentáře 0
horliví demokraté : ISLAMISMUS A DEMOKRACIE V EGYPTĚ, INDONÉSIE A TURECKO
Anthony Bubalo
Greg Fealy
Svatodušní Mason
The fear of Islamists coming to power through elections has long been an obstacle to democratisation in authoritarian states of the Muslim world. Islamists have been, and continue to be, the best organised and most credible opposition movements in many of these countries.
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. Ve stejnou dobu, the commitment of Islamists to democracy is often questioned. Vskutku, 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.
| Srpna 07, 2010 | Komentáře 0
Demokracie, Terrorism and American Policy in the Arab World
F. Gregory Gause
The United States has embarked upon what President Bush and Secretary of State Rice has called a “generational challenge” to encourage political reform and democracy in the Arab world. The Bush Administration and other defenders of the democracy campaign contend that the push for Arab democracy is not only about spreading American values, but also about insuring American security. They hypothesize that as democracy grows in the Arab world, anti-American terrorism from the Arab world will decline. Proto, the promotion of democracy inthe Arab world is not only consistent with American security goals in the area, but necessary to achieve those goals.
Two questions present themselves in considering this element of the “Bush Doctrine” in the Arab world: 1) Is there a relationship between terrorism and democracy such that the more democratic a country becomes, the less likely it is to produce terrorists and terrorist groups? Jinými slovy, is the security rationale for democracy promotion in the Arab world based on a sound premise?; a 2) What kind of governments would likely be generated by democratic elections in Arab countries? Would they be willing to cooperate with the United States on important policy objectives in the Middle East, not only in maintaining democracy but also on
Arab-Israeli, Gulf security and oil issues?
This paper will consider these two questions. It finds that there is little empirical evidence linking democracy with an absence of or reduction in terrorism. It questions whether democracy would reduce the motives and opportunities of groups like al-Qa’ida, which oppose democracy on both religious and practical grounds. It examines recent trends in Arab public opinion and elections, concluding that while Arab publics are very supportive of democracy, democratic elections in Arab states are likely to produce Islamist governments which would be much less likely to cooperate with the United States than their authoritarian predecessors.
| Srpna 06, 2010 | Komentáře 0
IS TAYYIP ERDOĞAN THE NEW NASSER
Hürriyet DailyNews
Mustafa Akyol
Last Thursday night, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan suddenly became the focus of all the news channels in the country. The reason was that he had stormed the diplomatic scene at a World Economic Forum panel in Davos by accusing Israeli President Shimon Peres for “killing people,” and reminding the biblical commandment, “Thou shall not kill.”
This was not just breaking news to the media, but also music to the ears of millions of Turks who were deeply touched by the recent bloodshed that Israel caused in the Gaza Strip. Some of them even hit the streets in order to welcome Erdoğan, who had decided to come to Istanbul right away after the tense debate. Thousands of cars headed toward the Atatürk airport in the middle of the night in order to welcome “the conqueror of Davos.
” ’Turkey is proud of you’
I personally had a more mundane problem at that very moment. In order to catch my 5 a.m. flight, I had left home at a quite reasonable time, 2.30 a.m. But the traffic to the airport was completely locked because of the amazing number of cars destined toward it. So, after leaving the taxi at the start of the long river of vehicles, I had to walk on the highway for about two kilometers, my hands on my luggage and my eyes on the crowd. When Erdoğan finally stepped out of the terminal, while I just walking into it, thousands applauded him and started to chant, “Turkey is proud of you!”
| Srpna 01, 2010 | Komentáře 0
The History of the Muslim Brotherhood
Michelle Paison
We in the West !nd it incomprehensible that theological ideas still in”ame the minds of men, stirring up messianic passions that can leave societies in ruin. We had assumed that this was no longer possible,that human beings had learned to separate religious questions from political ones, that political theology died in 16h-century Europe. We were wrong.1Islam is no longer exclusively a religion, but an ideology that provides a total framework for all aspects of political, social, economic, and cultural life in the Muslim world. Although Islam has continuously demonstrated the theme of resurgence throughout its history in response to the internal and external forces that challenge Muslim faith and society, the assertion of Islamism has strongly reemerged. Discontent is evident through the gradual movement towards Islamist ideology, whether or not the idea ofIslam strongly resonates among the populous. Individuals, despondentfrom the suppression of alternatives from oppressive regimes, look towards change. Organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, provide clear examples of the greater trend developing throughout the region ofthe Middle East and North Africa. #e political power and social in”uenceheld by the Brotherhood capitalizes on the Arab Republic of Egypt’s failureto support its peoples. Subsequently the dissatis!ed population turns to a movement that has the ability to provide the necessary services for survival;Islamismus. #is increasing development is pushing moderate, mainstream Islam into the realm of radicalism through means of desperation.Part of the emergence of neorevivalism, Muslimské bratrstvo,established by Hassan al-Banna in 1928, saw the Islamic community at a critical crossroads and insisted that Muslims would !nd strength in the totalself-su$ciency of Islam.
| července 31, 2010 | Komentáře 0
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