Posted on 01/29/2005 4:54:47 PM PST by Stultis
Arabs Say Iraq Vote Gives Democracy a Bad Name
Fri Jan 28, 2005 08:52 AM ET
By Tom Perry
CAIRO (Reuters) - President Bush sees Sunday's election in Iraq as a beacon for freedom in the Middle East, but Arab reformers say the poll will set back their cause.
Arab human rights activists say the Iraqi election is deeply flawed and will give democracy a bad name. They say violence and the prospect of a Sunni Arab boycott will undermine the poll. Many Arabs, already suspicious of U.S. intentions in Iraq, are also dismissing the vote's credibility because of the presence of the 150,000 U.S. troops there.
"The influence of the elections for us as democrats is disastrous," Syrian human rights activist Haytham Manna told Reuters from Paris. "When you marginalize wide sections of society from the political process ... this is not democracy."
"With this example, all the Arab extremists will say to us: 'You democrats, go to hell, because you haven't been able to solve our problems with your democracy and elections'," said Manna, who left Syria in 1978 as a political exile.
Some Iraqi Sunni Arab groups are boycotting the election, saying it cannot be free and fair because of the U.S. military presence and daily bloodshed in Sunni heartlands.
The prospect that majority Shi'ites and minority Kurds will dominate Iraq's first parliamentary election since Saddam Hussein fell in April 2003 has fueled fears of communal strife.
"If the U.S. really sees the Iraqi elections as a step to usher in democracy, Arabs don't need it because it would be a leap into more bloodshed and chaos," said Mokhtar Trifi, head of Tunisia's only independent human rights group.
Many Arabs think elections held under U.S. occupation can only produce a government similar to the U.S.-backed interim government, which they view as an American puppet.
DEMOCRATIC CHARADES
"The elections depict democracy as if it is connected to the idea of submission to the American occupier," said Abdel Halim Qandil, who is campaigning against an extension of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 23-year-old rule.
"The idea of democracy will lose its reputation in the Arab world entirely," Qandil said, comparing the Iraqi election with 20th-century polls held in Egypt under British occupation. "Democratic charades of this type were going on then," he said.
Some Arab dissidents also say violence in Iraq has given Arab governments an excuse to deflect pressure from the Bush administration for democratic reform across the Middle East.
Egyptian civil rights activist Saadeddin Ibrahim said the chaos in Iraq had allowed the Egypt government to discredit the U.S. project at home. Cairo was also warning Washington that political reform in Egypt might unleash extremism.
Rights campaigners say U.S. abuse of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad had also put back the cause of human rights in Arab states accused of torturing prisoners.
Manaa, spokesman for the Arab Commission for Human Rights, said cases of torture in Arab jails had increased since the Abu Ghraib scandal. U.S. soldiers involved have faced court martial.
"Arab governments say: 'This is the reform carried out by the one who calls on us to reform,"' Manaa said.
Saudi academic Madawi al-Rasheed said the Abu Ghraib scandal coupled with air strikes on Falluja, which the U.S. military said was a stronghold for Sunni insurgents, had lost America the support of its natural Arab allies in pushing for democracy.
"The educated, liberal classes, they cannot possibly have positive views vis-a-vis America when these things are going on," she told Reuters from London.
But Rasheed said if democracy did take root in Iraq it would be an example to other Arabs, a view echoed by Shafiq Ghabra, president of the American University of Kuwait.
"Today there are few places in the Arab world where you can have this dynamic expression of ideas, lists, candidates," he said. (Additional reporting by Lamine Ghanmi in Tunis and Noora Kassem in Kuwait)
This "reporter" cranks out this crap to order. Here's another piece from a week ago where he quotes (and likewise offers no news otherwise) from most of these same "civil rights activists". Bush Freedom Pledge Rings Hollow in Arab World.
"Arab human rights activists"
Isn't that usually synonymous with "terrorism justifier"?
It's on Reuters so it must be true.
"With this example, all the Arab extremists will say to us: 'You democrats, go to hell, because you haven't been able to solve our problems with your democracy and elections'," said Manna, who left Syria in 1978 as a political exile."
Can somebody explain to me what she's trying to say? It sounds like empty justification to me.
"Rights campaigners say U.S. abuse of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad had also put back the cause of human rights in Arab states accused of torturing prisoners."
This is total justification. These people aren't serious about human rights, they're just looking to blame the west for their own govt.'s abuses.
I'd like to know why it's not possible for non-Muslims to live and worship in Muslim countries, but it's okay for Muslims to live and worship in non-Muslim countries.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html
This is an interesting site that says that no democratic nation with human rights for all members has ever gone to war with another. The data there seems to undercut the premise of this article.
I won't believe a word of this until CAIR starts whining.
lol
Reuters, Al Jazeera both cut from the same crappy mold. In the minds of the UN, Arab extremists and left wing moonbats etc there will never be any legitimacy in their minds because they were not the driving force behind it
"Today there are few places in the Arab world where you can have this dynamic expression of ideas, lists, candidates," he said."
So basically, the entire article was a load of BS meant to justify the fascism of Arab governments.
An oxymoron if I've ever seen one.
Best endorsement Bush could ask for, save Ted Kennedy rants.
This arm chair revolutionists don't want to face the fact that violence is what is needed to ovberthrowe their own autocaric regimes. The problem is that those capable of violkence will just put themselves in place of the old regime.
Reuters scoured the country to find these people. Disgusting and pathetic. Don't watch the lib news channels, all they are talking about is stuff like this and how many people are dieing trying to vote.
Iraqis in Enclave Near Saddam's Hometown Say Vote - Not Violence - Will Free Country From Occupation
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBHYKJIK4E.html
"The influence of the elections for us as democrats is disastrous,"
Can somebody please try to make sense of that statement for me? Isn't that sort of like saying "The influence of private property rights for us as capitalists is disasterous"?
With this example, all the liberal extremists will say to us: 'You Democrats, go to Hell, because you haven't been able to solve the problems with our democracy and elections'," said ko_kyi, who left California in 1992 as a political exile.
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