Posted on 07/30/2005 4:35:19 PM PDT by Valin
The Universal Hunger for Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable
Michael Novak, AEI Reuel Marc Gerecht, AEI Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, AEI Laith Kubba, National Endowment for Democracy Michael A. Ledeen, AEI Joshua Muravchik, AEI
MR. DEMUTH: Ladies and gentlemen, let us begin. My name is Chris DeMuth. I am President of AEI, and I will be moderating this seminar. My colleague, Michael Novak, who holds the Jewitt Chair in Religion, Philosophy and Public Policy at AEI, has just published a new book. I can say that almost every month.
[Laughter.]
MR. DEMUTH: But this is a particularly big and serious and important book. The title is The Universal Hunger For Liberty, Why the Clash of Civilizations is Not Inevitable, just published by Basic Books. Books are available in the reception room--where there will be a reception afterwards--for sale, and I'm sure the author would be happy to sign books for you.
It is a deep exploration of what President Bush calls the forward strategy of freedom, in which the western world is currently engaged, at times philosophic, at times practical and concerned with immediate political issues, with essays ranging from a exploration of the traditional conceptions of liberty, truth and God in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, to a discussion of contemporary economic and even environmental issues, and culminating in a discussion of the relation of religious belief to democracy.
Mr. Novak is going to begin with a presentation of the core of his book, which I believe will focus on his hopes laid out in the book for the engagement of a global discussion of the future of freedom.
Following his discussion we have four other people at AEI, each of whom has been concerned in his or her writings and research and public engagements in the past several years with the issue of democracy and its potential and growth in the Muslim world, especially in the Arab Middle East. These include Senior Fellow Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Michael Ledeen and Joshua Muravchik.
We're particularly grateful to Laith Kubba of the National Endowment for Democracy, that he would come over and join us this afternoon. He is NED's Senior Program Officer for the Middle East and North Africa. I think it must be a typo in the biography that is passed out. It says that he is also a known contributor, a known contributor to the debates on Iraq, Islam and democratization in the Muslim world. He had a long and distinguished career before joining NED, including in the 1980s, Director of Al Aalam in London and Africa events, a London-based magazine.
We will begin with Michael Novak, and then I will, unless there are objections, I'm going to start with Reuel and work their way around.
Michael, I should be sitting between you to protect you from all of these vigorous commentators, but you're going to have to fend for yourself once we get going.
What about the Democrats and "liberals", etc., "hunger" for cradle to grave security, "multiculturalism" "peace" "environmentalism" and all the other phoney baloney they're trying to pedal and force onto the American public?
Michael Novak, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Laith Kubba, Michael A. Ledeen
This sort of reminds me of an original Star Trek away team: Captain Kirk, Ensign Janice Rand, some unknown guy in a uniform, and Mr. Spock. And what always happens to the unknown guy? That's right...he's toast.
What makes you think there's not?
Nice one Valen
You can see a video of the event on that website as well
I thought so. The book is pretty good also.
My reading list grows faster than can be plowed through
Hence why it is beautiful to be a reader...there is always more to read :)
My reading list grows faster than can be plowed through
Ain't it the truth!
As many Europeans have ceased to be faithful to Judaism and Christianity, they also have lost their taste both for liberty and for the God of liberty - Michael Novak
If there were a universal hunger for liberty all the police forces in the world couldn't hold it back. Liberty (as defined in the West) is a value that is balanced against other social values, order being the major one, and there is little evidence of a groundswell for liberty as a primary value around the world, certainly it is not universal, the way a desire not to be hungry is universal, for example. If a vote was taken tomorrow in the Shia areas of Iraq the result would be a Shi'ite theocracy that wouldn't fit into even the most stretched definition of the word liberty. (To be fair to the Muslims and others the modern West is hardly a good advertisement for liberty.) The nasty little truth is that outside of the West liberty hardly exists except in a few pinpoints where it was planted by the West, and even within West it is in fact diminishing, as Novak points out elsewhere. If it were a universal hunger that wouldn't happen, at least not beyond the degree of practical necessity. Calling a hunger for liberty "universal" is nonsense on the face of it. It is political correctness and cultural relativism that is refuted by the quickest glance around the world.
Novak himself is a famous Catholic activist and was (is?) a supporter of mass immigration from Central America on the grounds that increasing Catholicism in America will improve society. The plain truth is that every Central American that crawls across the border reduces my liberty, a fact that Novak must have foreseen, but he, like his Shia counterparts in Iraq, chose to suppress his hunger for liberty in favor of religion or multiculturalism.
If there were a universal hunger for liberty all the police forces in the world couldn't hold it back.
Big Pharaoh
http://www.bigpharaoh.blogspot.com/
Friday, July 29, 2005
The Candlelight Vigil
Yesterday night, I got the news that the permit for our candelight vigil has been revoked. It was not a surprise. You can expect anything to happen if you're dealing with Egypt's tremendous bureaucracy. Since we didn't manage to get the permit, I decided not to go. I really wanted to do it the right way and not get in trouble with the police like what happened last Sunday.
I got a phone call from Sandmonkey today evening informing me that some people whom I don't know decided to go ahead and hold the vigil even without the permit. He asked me if I would like to pass by the Azhar Park just to see what those guys managed to do, if they in fact did anything.
We got in a cab and went straight to Azhar Park. When we approached the park, we were welcomed by a throng of policemen, security soldiers, and 4 huge riots police trucks. The atmosphere was tensed. We didn't stop and ordered the cab driver to take us back to where he picked us from.
Why did our permit get revoked? Why did the police send such a huge number of security soldiers to an anti-terror demonstration? I believe the answer lies in the phobia that our government has towards any sort of demonstration even if it was a protest denouncing Osama Bin Laden. They hate assemblies, period. May be the police was afraid lest our protest turn into an anti-government or an anti-Mubarak demonstration or something. They just don't want the hassle.
It is sad that terrorists are murdering innocents around the world yet we, a group of normal young Egyptians, cannot have the chance to tell the terrorists "NO"
I'll keep you posted if I got any news about those who went ahead and had the vigil today.
Anyway, since I couldn't go today, I might just hold the candle right now:
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