The Islamic Autocracies: Does Islam Have Provisions For The Kind Of Western Democracies?
28 February 2011By Saeed Qureshi
Incidentally the autocracies and family oligarchies in
the Middle East and the North Africa are Islamic. Even
if elections are held there, it is invariably the
ruling junta that returns to power. We can see that in
Tunisia, where President Zainul Abideen remained at
the helm for 23 years till he was forced to flee as a
result of a fierce popular uprising. Hosni Mubarak of
Egypt ruled for 32 years with an iron hand while his
counterpart in Libya Col. Qaddafi is an absolute
ruthless sovereign for 42 years now.
The other kings or dynastic rulers and hereditary
tribal chieftains in UAE (trucial states) Qatar,
Bahrain, Muscat and Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia and Syria are lording over the family fiefdom
and rule like medieval potentates treating their
people as docile subjects. It is a kind of indigenous
colonization.
In the aftermath of the Renaissance (14th to 17th
century) and the French Revolution (1789-1799) when
the western countries started switching over to the
democratic political culture, the Islamic world was
still under the colonial domination. The first
democratic regime that was established in an Islamic
country was Turkey (1923). The democratic political
order was established by forsaking the orthodox
caliphate and by dissociating from the symbols and
rituals that were primarily of Arab origin and were
prevalent in the Turkish society. During the Ottomans'
reign even the Turkish language was set aide and
replaced with the Arabic script.
The" young Turks revolution" under Kamal Ataturk was
the first historic change that aligned Turkey with the
western democratic system of government by overriding
the claim of the king or caliph as being the
representative or lieutenant of God upon earth. In
fact in Islam the sovereignty lies with God and man is
simply his subordinate to carry out the religious
commandments passed on to the human beings by his
messengers. But a ruler has got to be absolutely pious
and just.
The purpose of the foregoing is to highlight the
thesis that Islam does not have provisions for the
kind of western democracies that are still
non-existent in most of the Islamic countries. The
power lies with the sovereign of the universe and not
with the person chosen by the votes of the people. As
such The Middle East where the Islam spread at the
outset has remained under the family dynasties,
oligarchies, royal families and a ruthless strongman.
With the fall of the Soviet Communist Empire in 1989,
the East European countries that were aligned with
Soviet Union as satellite states also withered away
and were converted into democratic republics. That was
a monumental revolution that changed the entire
complexion of the cold war between the capitalist
United States and the erstwhile communist Soviet
Union.
The East European communist that were previously
attached to the apron string of the Soviet Union
underwent a tumultuous change and disentangled
themselves from the communist bloc. These countries of
East Europe are now well entrenched democratic regimes
and are open and accountable to their people.
While the west engineered the collapse of the Soviet
Communist network, on the contrary it promoted,
fostered and protected the oil rich or strategically
important t totalitarian Islamic regimes in the Middle
East run by one family or individuals. In the Far East
one Islamic state that also switched from a socialist
state to a pro west quasi-democratic regime was
Indonesia against a heavy cost of massive upheaval and
loss of human lives.
However, in the Middle East it suited the interests of
both the despotic rulers and their western patrons not
to establish the representative governments. The
reason was the cheaper oil that was desperately needed
by the west to run its economy. It was lot more easily
to deal with one family or individual for a quid pro
quo than a government answerable to their people.
Unfortunately the policy of the west and particularly
that of the United States has been to install and
protect such family fiefdoms that served the western
interests with folded hands. Same was the case in
relationship between the Soviet Union and her Middle
Eastern protégés namely, Syria, and Egypt under Nasser
and later Iraq under Saddam Hussain.
While the pro-west authoritarian states were
surrogates of the western bloc, those on the other
side of the fence were always prone or vulnerable to
the western machinations for their dissolution. This
happened in case of Iran under a socialist and
nationalist Musssdaq and Egypt under Nasser. Musssdaq
was replaced with a coup while Nasser resigned because
of defeat in the war with Israel. Libya, however,
survived and later budged under the irresistible
pressure of the west. Qaddafi was therefore allowed to
rule as long as he behaved.
As such the Middle East was also a battlefield for the
cold war not only on the ideological basis but also
for the sake of economic interests, which meant
uninterrupted flow of cheap oil to the west? When
Saudi ruler Shah Faisal threatened during the 1873
Arab-Israeli war to use oil as a weapon against the
west he was physically removed from the scene.
Thereafter, the orthodox regime in Saudi Arabia has
been friendly and compliant to both Israel and the
west. Similar surrogate states were allowed to
function in the entire Middle East enjoying very
cordial relations with the United States and other
counterparts in Europe.
But such a stagnant situation that was a throwback of
the medieval ages with people suppressed and silenced
under the brutal network of the autocrats could not
prolong. The change that was simmering has finally
burst out with one single and insignificant incident
in Tunisia where a young vendor Mohamed Bouazizi
immolated himself in utter helplessness and brutal
manhandling by the police.
The stark difference between the change in the Eastern
Europe and the one currently underway in the Middle
East is that in the East Europe the arch power of
communism had herself disintegrated and led to a
domino impact on the protégés or client states. In the
Middle East, the change is coming under the dynamics
of the changing events. Here the patrons of these
autocratic regimes are supporting the protesting
public which is a good omen for the oppressed people.
Because of its own debacle in Afghanistan and its
mauled military prowess, the Soviet Union was not in a
position to check the revolution in the East Europe.
Here in the Middle East, while the United States and
the west has no such perils, they are trying to be on
the right side of history which means supporting the
people and not the regimes.
This mammoth and once in a millennium grassroots
revolution sweeping across the Middle East,
unequivocally transmit the message that the era of
autocracies and authoritarianism established by the
Muslims tyrants in the name of Islam or otherwise is
coming to an end. Those who resist this raging
avalanche would be swept away along with its
irresistible flow. The world is moving towards
democracy, humanism, openness, liberty, equality and
respect for the people.
In the near future the governments would have the
right to govern by the mandate of the people of the
respective countries. The dictators and their abettors
and cronies have no place in a fast changing
socio-political scenario. Only such dispensation would
endure that are elected via the popular suffrage and
provide the equality of opportunities, sharing of
national wealth with the people by way of jobs,
education, health and other services and establish
just socio-economic systems.
One may call it the Islamic concept of egalitarian and
welfare system or capitalism or socialism or the mix
of all these doctrines but undoubtedly it is bound to
prevail. These systems are already fruitfully and
robustly in vogue in several countries where the
governments are accountable to the people and where no
one sleeps with an empty stomach nor suffers from the
haunting fear of brutalization by the state for
speaking the truth.
(The writer is a Dallas-based freelance journalist
and a former diplomat writing mostly on International
Affairs with specific focus on Pakistan and the United
States)
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