Monk

Is the Arab world unready for freedom? A crude stereotype lingers that some people — Arabs, Chinese and Africans — are incompatible with democracy. Many around the world fret that “people power” will likely result in Somalia-style chaos, Iraq-style civil war or Iran-style oppression.

That narrative has been nourished by Westerners and, more sadly, by some Arab, Chinese and African leaders. So with much of the Middle East in an uproar today, let’s tackle a politically incorrect question head-on: Are Arabs too politically immature to handle democracy?

-- Nicholas D. Kristof for The New York Times

It's a question that has proved more presseing since the pro-democracy conflagration in the Middle East has spread throughout the region, including Libya and Bahrain. As for the potential for realzing a sustained democracy, I recall the dire picture painted in my undergraduate days, that essentially only countries that were under the heel of the British have shown any real timber for such popular government, and I haven't grown more optimistic with age, but then I also feel rather doleful about the democracy we have in the Western world, which seems more like a rich man's toy.

"Blows are not effective with every woman, but they are helpful with some."

-- Youssef al-Qaradawi

I'm not posting that quote merely for my amusement, though there is that, too. It is part of a backgrounder by Der Spiegel on the man who is considered to be the voice of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Though, as far as women's rights go, al-Qaradawi does not believe that a woman needs permission from her husband if she feels inspired to blow herself up in an Israeli cafe. Priorities, I guess.

Okay, this may be an unfair encapsulation, but it does suggest the concern that we ought to have when we observe the political convulsions in Egypt. Moderate or Islamist? We will be learning, for better or worse.

Americans don’t like to admit this. We take refuge in foreign policy systems: liberal internationalism or realpolitik, neoconservatism or noninterventionism. We have theories, and expect the facts to fall into line behind them. Support democracy, and stability will take care of itself. Don’t meddle, and nobody will meddle with you. International institutions will keep the peace. No, balance-of-power politics will do it.

But history makes fools of us all. We make deals with dictators, and reap the whirlwind of terrorism. We promote democracy, and watch Islamists gain power from Iraq to Palestine. We leap into humanitarian interventions, and get bloodied in Somalia. We stay out, and watch genocide engulf Rwanda. We intervene in Afghanistan and then depart, and watch the Taliban take over. We intervene in Afghanistan and stay, and end up trapped there, with no end in sight.

Sooner or later, the theories always fail. The world is too complicated for them, and too tragic. History has its upward arcs, but most crises require weighing unknowns against unknowns, and choosing between competing evils.

The only comfort, as we watch Egyptians struggle for their country’s future, is that some choices aren’t America’s to make.

-- Ross Douthat for The New York Times

Ah, learned helplessness, my old friend. Talk about cold comfort.

The position of the government of the United States of America should never be to say to the side that’s using batons on demonstrators, “attaboy.”

The folks in the streets in Egypt include plenty of backers of the Muslim Brotherhood, aspiring Islamists, and garden-variety bad folk. But reports indicate the crowds include a large number of previously apolitical Egyptians who are fed up with three decades of governance that were not merely oppressive, but incompetent. The Egyptian economy has never thrived; you know the usual figures – 40 percent get by on less than $2 per day. But when you pile rising wheat prices on an impoverished country, ordinary folks find the usual poor governance untenable. They have to eat, and have to believe there’s some small possibility of their lives getting better someday. Hosni Mubarak and his regime have worn out a decades-long benefit of the doubt from a people who historically were inclined to have tea, complain, and shrug rather than burn cars and take on riot police.

If you support the right of American Tea Partiers to gather together and protest their government, I don’t quite understand why you would deny the average Egyptian the same right. It’s not like angry Egyptians can write a letter to the editor or vote out their representatives to get better results. Even if the protesters are anti-Israeli, want a more Islamist government, and can repeat every bit of anti-American propaganda they’ve ever heard, who are we to say to them, “You deserve no better than Mubarak”?

-- Jim Geraghty at the National Review

What makes that statement more interesting is that the National Review is a conservative Republican institution, who you think would be much more concerned about the rise of an Islamist government. After all, it's not like an Islamist government would remain democratic for long, nor is it likely to prove more competent at enabling people to lead freer and economically richer lives.

However, it is hard, if not impossible, for America not to support the stirring call for freedom from dictatorship, and the Obama administration is naturally defending the rights of citizens to protest non-violently against their goverment. One just has to worry about the Egyptians jumping from the frying pan into the fire, and the hell that could break loose with an Islamist government.

Still, it is exciting to see people rising up for democracy, and maybe this could lead to that Muslim renaissance we've long been hoping for since 9/11. It's just that we have to be nervous, because we really don't know where this could be heading.

As Europe’s Muslim population grows, many young Muslim women are caught between the freedoms that European society affords and the deep-rooted traditions of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

Gynecologists say that in the past few years, more Muslim women are seeking certificates of virginity to provide proof to others. That in turn has created a demand among cosmetic surgeons for hymen replacements, which, if done properly, they say, will not be detected and will produce tell-tale vaginal bleeding on the wedding night. The service is widely advertised on the Internet; medical tourism packages are available to countries like Tunisia where it is less expensive.

“If you’re a Muslim woman growing up in more open societies in Europe, you can easily end up having sex before marriage,” said Dr. Hicham Mouallem, who is based in London and performs the operation. “So if you’re looking to marry a Muslim and don’t want to have problems, you’ll try to recapture your virginity.”

-- Elaine Sciolino for The New York Times

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DEARBORN, Mich. — When pools of water began accumulating on the floor in some restrooms at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and the sinks pulling away from the walls, the problem was easy to pinpoint. On this campus, more than 10 percent of the students are Muslims, and as part of ritual ablutions required before their five-times-a-day prayers, some were washing their feet in the sinks.

The solution seemed straightforward. After discussions with the Muslim Students’ Association, the university announced that it would install $25,000 foot-washing stations in several restrooms.

-- Tamar Lewin for The New York Times

When I first read this article on Islamic accommodaton, I admit my first gut reaction was one of anger, to see an Islamicization of society while engaged in a conflict with radicals who want to Islamicize society. However, I suppose America is still rich enough that we can afford such accommodaton, and it should show that we really aren't anti-Muslims.

We just don't want to become Muslims. After all, it continues to be a struggle to keep from being forced to be Christians.

( article )

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I don't suppose these will be gracing the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition anytime soon, but now there is swimwear for Muslim women: the burquini!

It is the product of Australians' concerns that they might have been harboring some anti-Muslim racism, concerns that were heightened after a neo-nazi rampage of violence against Muslims. In response, the country has been carrying on an outreach program to bring Muslims into mainstream Australian life, and apparently few things are more Australian than their beach life and their Surf Life Savers, or lifeguards as we would know them.

(Source: Raymond Bonner for The New York Times)

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Escalating tensions between Sunnis and Shiites across the Middle East are rippling through some American Muslim communities, and have been blamed for events including vandalism and student confrontations. Political splits between those for and against the American invasion of Iraq fuel some of the animosity, but it is also a fight among Muslims about who represents Islam.

-- Neil Farquhar for The New York Times

Isn't this special? Dubya liked to say that we were fighting the terrorists in Iraq so that we would not have to fight them here. But it looks like we may be fighting in a civil war both there and here.

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Canadians are one-upping us again on multi-culturalism. They are airing a new show that apparently makes a combination of "All in the Family" and "Beverly Hillbillies" out of the experience of Muslims living in Western society titled "Little Mosque on the Prarie."

As I was reading about it, I was thinking they might be in for some serious confrontation from fundamentalist Muslims, and the article addresses that issue, and one hopes they are right that our concerns are misplaced, though our concerns are certainly not irrational given recent history.

( article )

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