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| Elections Signal the Desire for Islam |
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So what is one to conclude of these election victories? Good luck, pent-up feelings of oppression, a lack of viable alternatives or even a conspiracy to give the Islamists a poisoned chalice? Well at least this much is true, the depth of the victories achieved took everyone by surprise, including the Islamic parties themselves. It may have been excused as fortuitous in one instance but in four or five cases? No doubt even the most ardent critics of the Islamists recognise a trend.
The anti-corruption ticket is how the Islamic parties were billed in many of these elections. Yes, it is certainly true that the anti-corruption agenda has been used effectively by parties such as Hamas in their march towards power, however to imply that this is the single most important reason for their success misses the mark. Support for the Islamic parties stems from a growing desire for an alternative political dynamic to develop, one that takes the form of Islam at the heart of any self-determination struggle. Again according to the 2004 Zogby International-Sadat Chair poll, those surveyed in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE said the clergy should play a greater role in their political systems and as many as 47 percent of Egyptians supported a greater role for the clergy.
In general and contrary to popular belief Muslims actually turn out in large numbers to vote much more than the voter apathy we see in many Western nations. Yet the trouble for the American administration is if Arab public opinion was more representative, this would manifest in more anti-American representation on a governmental level. Islamic or loosely Islamic governments are less likely to play ball when it comes to strategic American interests in the region. A fact attested to by Benjamin Barber, a passionate advocate of democratisation he states, “Democratization has to be both fast and slow, and we are doing neither. Fast in the sense that people need to be empowered immediately, because one way to teach responsibility is empowerment. If democracy is anything, it is the right of a people to make their own mistakes, and those mistakes may not please the U.S.”
The Zogby poll conducted in 2004 shows serious signs of deterioration in attitudes of people in the Arab world who have had a favourable attitude towards America. Between the polls conducted in 2002 and 2004 favourable views of America had dropped from 38% to 11% in Morocco, 12% to 4% in Saudi Arabia, 34% to 14% in Jordan and in Egypt from 15% to a staggering 2%. The leanings are now strikingly clear. In the Arab world the vast assortments of Islamic parties are having a profound effect on free elections both at the municipal, local and national levels, a trend that does not see any sign of abating.
What then does the future herald for Washington in the region? It is inevitable that the present circumstances cannot endure; America will focus on pushing Arab governments to make political space for liberal, secular, nationalist, and other non-Islamist parties to set down roots and mobilize voters. This would likely manifest itself in applying open pressure on Arab regimes when they obstruct the political activity of liberal groups. However this may not be as easy to enforce in the Arab world at the moment as the US administration would like to think. Take for example Syria whose officials have been seen to be aggressively silencing domestic liberal political opposition while accommodating religious conservatives a reflection perhaps of the mood of religious identification in its populace. After the Islamists’ recent success the call for prompt elections in the Arab world seems to be on the wane, especially where no strong, organised alternative to Islamist parties exists.
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