Egypt's recent election has followed a pattern in the Middle East: Islamists have taken the majority of the votes. This has followed the success of Islamist An-Nadha in Tunisia and the Islamic Justice and Development party in Morocco. This has inevitably led to a massive debate in countries such as the UK and especially France over what this means. The usual anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic scaremongering has been trotted out.
This is not to deny that it is a difficult issue for libertarians such as myself: on the one hand I support democracy and diversity and the legitimacy of their choice of leaders and representatives; on the other hand I have a natural aversion to giving religion an explicit place in politics and to the reduced level of freedoms religious states tend to allow their citizens.
However, I remind myself, and others in this position, the respect I and others in democratised developed countries have for democracy and freedom of speech does not exist worldwide and for good reason.
We revere democracy because, for the most part, it has worked. It has provided us with human rights, economic prosperity, and freedoms unimagined a mere century or two ago. This is not the case for countries such as Tunisia and Egypt who have only seen a sham democracy.
For a lot of people in Arab (and other) countries Islam is far more important politically than the concepts of ‘liberalism’ and ‘democracy’ where these concepts have been nothing but shams. Where a president receives 99.9% of the vote in ‘elections’ and gives a front of liberalism while disregarding the basic press and political freedoms (not to mention the economic and social ones) of the people. If these and future elections are successful, Tunisians’ faith in the processes of democracy will be strengthened, and the natural equation between Islam and politics in many minds will fade.
While it is my ideal that people’s personal religious beliefs be kept out of politics (at least in the most overt way), I also accept that the practical and actual experiences of real people and real countries are not always conducive to this. I also accept that my views will not necessarily be correct. And that there are different paths to the greatest democracy for different countries and different people.
This is not to deny that it is a difficult issue for libertarians such as myself: on the one hand I support democracy and diversity and the legitimacy of their choice of leaders and representatives; on the other hand I have a natural aversion to giving religion an explicit place in politics and to the reduced level of freedoms religious states tend to allow their citizens.
However, I remind myself, and others in this position, the respect I and others in democratised developed countries have for democracy and freedom of speech does not exist worldwide and for good reason.
We revere democracy because, for the most part, it has worked. It has provided us with human rights, economic prosperity, and freedoms unimagined a mere century or two ago. This is not the case for countries such as Tunisia and Egypt who have only seen a sham democracy.
For a lot of people in Arab (and other) countries Islam is far more important politically than the concepts of ‘liberalism’ and ‘democracy’ where these concepts have been nothing but shams. Where a president receives 99.9% of the vote in ‘elections’ and gives a front of liberalism while disregarding the basic press and political freedoms (not to mention the economic and social ones) of the people. If these and future elections are successful, Tunisians’ faith in the processes of democracy will be strengthened, and the natural equation between Islam and politics in many minds will fade.
While it is my ideal that people’s personal religious beliefs be kept out of politics (at least in the most overt way), I also accept that the practical and actual experiences of real people and real countries are not always conducive to this. I also accept that my views will not necessarily be correct. And that there are different paths to the greatest democracy for different countries and different people.
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