IRAQ: TWO STONE WALLS

Mr. Bush is immovable, unshakable in his determination
that democracy is on the rise everywhere, and by God
Iraq will be no exception. He says democracy is a rising
tide that lifts all boats. I hate to tell him, but a rising
tide doesn't lift all boats: it sinks the ones with defective
bottoms! (Remember the Titanic?)

Mr. Bush (and his supporters) should read the
chapter in Fareed Zakaria's The Future of Freedom
entitled: "The Islamic Exception." There Fareed explains
why democracy has little or no appeal to much of the
Muslim world: ". . . for the fundamentalists, Islam is
considered a template for all life, including politics."
Muhammed established a theocracy governed by
religious law. "If it's good enough for Muhammed,
it's more than good enough for us," reason many, if
not most, Muslims. While Islam stresses justice and
equality, classical Islam developed in the 7th and 8th
centuries, lacks many of the other ideas we associate
with democracy today. To quote Elie Kedouri
(Democracy and Arab Political Culture): "The idea
of representation, of elections, of popular suffrage,
of political institutions being regulated by laws laid
down by a parliamentary assembly, of these laws
being guarded and upheld by an independent
judiciary, the ideas of the secularity of the state . . .
all these are profoundly alien to the Muslim political
tradition."

As I have mentioned in the past, there are 22 Arab
countries, and none is or ever has been, a working
liberal democracy. There must be some reason for
that. And there is. There is no Arabic word for
"democracy." If God gave us a perfect law in the
Quran, why would we need (or even consider) man-
made laws? And what need is there for legislature
(or parliament), if there's no need to make laws?
What would they do?

Someone needs to explain Islam to Mr. Bush, and
that the incoming tide over there is the fundamentalist
brand of Islam. That is exemplified very well by
Mr. al-Maliki, a devout Shia, who is the other stone-
wall we are dealing with (besides Mr. B.). Mr. M.
wants very much an Islamic government in Iraq,
somewhat similar to the one in Iran (with which he
is in close touch.) He refuses to let the violent Sunni
minority shoot and bomb its way into political
legitimacy, and is increasingly upset with Mr. B
not only for allowing it, but now beginning to rearm
those same Sunnis. This is hardly just an academic
discussion: our soldiers are dying daily to prolong
this impasse! Stone walls don't move much.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net