What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
I’ve lived in the Islamic world twice, once in Palestine and once in Uzbekistan. In total I’ve only lived among Muslims for about 2 and a half years, but I was in my twenties, and in both cases I was spending most of my time interacting with ordinary people in ordinary neighborhoods. I wasn’t locked away in offices filled with expats, and indeed I would often go for days or weeks without seeing a fellow Westerner. So, I think I was in a position to develop some moderately useful anecdotal impressions about the attitudes of ordinary Muslims towards democracy and the West.*
In my opinion, most ordinary Muslims don’t hate Westerners per se. In my months of living and working in Gaza City, I walked the streets freely and never felt that my nationality put me at particular risk. I was occasionally accosted by someone who wanted to give me an earful concerning American policies towards Israel, but that’s about as serious as it got. Uzbeks, in general, have very favorable feelings towards the United States. If someone accosted me on the street in Uzbekistan, it was generally to ask whether I could help them get a visa.
Despite this, my experiences in the Islamic world eventually led me to believe that, on the whole, Muslims do not want democracy. When asked, they normally say that they do. Further discussion reveals, however, that what they really want is peace and prosperity. If you talk to them about civil liberties, you’ll find that most of them are pretty adamantly opposed to free speech and religion. They don’t think proselytizing should be legal, and most are suspicious of legal protections for Muslims who want to convert to another faith. They are scandalized by the suggestion that blasphemy, for example, would qualify as protected speech.
It would probably be possible to have a democracy with less civil liberties than we have here in the United States. Free and fair elections, however, are surely a necessary and defining feature of a democratic state. Do Muslims want them? Again, if asked directly, most would tell me that they did. At the end of the day, though, I found that they were fairly indifferent. The Uzbeks had great admiration for Vladimir Putin, and often expressed the wish that they could have such a strong and capable leader. Their impressions of Russian politics were strongly influenced by their own MSM, which was dominated by Vremia, a (very yellow) Russian television station that invariably portrayed Putin in a positive light. But here was the fascinating part: when I filled them in on some of the discrepancies in the Russian electoral system, they didn’t disbelieve me. They just didn’t particularly care. A few even observed that if Putin could successfully rig elections, that proved him to be clever, capable, and the perfect man for the job.
Is it just an incontrovertible truth of the modern world that justice, peace, and prosperity can only be achieved in a democratic state? Are elections the only effective safeguard against tyranny? That certainly hasn’t been the case historically and it’s hard to see why it should be so now. Why couldn’t the Islamic world hammer out a system of government that was more hierarchical and authoritarian than ours (perhaps a monarchy of some sort), and that restricted civil liberties more than we would allow, but that still ensured the rule of law and consistently protected an Islamified understanding of citizens’ rights?
Undoubtedly, such a society would have many features that we Westerners would lament. Homosexuality would probably be illegal, and women and religious minorities would be treated as inferior citizens. Makers of anti-Islamic videos would be prosecuted. At least, though, such a society might direct its ire against the actual creators of controversial literature, instead of massacring innocents who were utterly unassociated with the offensive media. More generally, I think radical Islam would mostly simmer down if Muslims had functional governments of their own to attend to. Like people everywhere, most ordinary Muslims want peace and stability, and care little about the lives and customs of foreigners who live far away.
Is there any chance of this happening? I don’t know, and obviously the initiative would mainly have to come from within the Islamic world itself. But on our end, I think it’s worth considering whether there are more achievable possibilities for the Islamic world -- possibilities that we could live with, even if they aren’t especially delightful to us.
*I should admit that my anecdotal data is a bit old. I was in Palestine in 2000, and in Uzbekistan from 2002 through 2004.
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Comments:
Jul '11
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
Interesting experiences you've had. I expect most Arabs and Persians like benevolent dictators much better. Democracy needs enlightened citizens to work. Oh wait, we're in trouble.
Jul '12
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
Yeah, I don't want to throw stones from this neighborhood full of glass houses, but... It does seem to me that given the fact that Islam is a complete socioeconomic model in and of itself that this simply isn't going to change until the Religious aspect of the lives of most Muslims is subordinated to at least a co-equal plane in their minds with the right of people to have differing opinions about that. Until then, we're in for a long, dark night.
Mar '11
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
Sharia and our notion of democratic government are completely incompatible with one another. The latter presupposes free will and rationality, while the former insists on strict adherence to what's written in the Koran. Never the twain shall meet.
Jul '12
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
I have often thought about this myself. I have also wondered whether the changes brought on by the Arab Spring were inevitable after toppling Saddam Hussein. Would backing up Mubarak more forcefully have prevented what we are seeing, or merely delayed it? If the people of these countries truly want to live in Islamic republics and are not interested in democracy as we know it, then what can we do about it? My feeling is that if they want to construct such societies, then let them. They will suffer for it in the long run. I would just like to see us with minimal involvement. To me it's a hornets nest. Maybe we can come to an agreement where they stay in their sphere and we stay in ours.
Dec '10
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
Democracy is a means to the end of liberty. Islamism is against the end, so the means is irrelevant.
Dec '11
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
If there can be no "imam of all believers" with freedom to interpret guidance in the Koran without fear of state sanction, there can be no ordered liberty in a Muslim state.
Jun '12
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
Rachel, great post. Your sense of the populace is very similar to mine in Iraq, less so in Afghanistan. Were the voilent jihadists/extremist/islamo-fascists not so ascendant (and well financed) I think that that your suggestion that just giving them a wide berth and letting them sort out some kind of quasi-democratic-autocracy would work. As it is though, I think that the jihadist will continue to exert pressures that move larger segments into their camp (at least as sympathizers) and we still won't be left safely alone.
Mar '11
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
This is one of those things that the West in general, and the American Right in particular, is downright delusional about. Condi Rice's speech got huge applause when she talked about "the universal yearning for freedom". How naive. There is no universal yearning for freedom. There's a universal yearning for "let my tribe's ways dominate, amen". Thomas Jefferson noted that some peoples and cultures simply weren't suited for democratic self government... he mentioned the Russians in particular... that some peoples always gravitate towards autocracy of some form. When people like Dubya and Condi make grand speeches about "spreading freedom across the world", I wonder if they realize the irony of the situation: they're simply regurgitating the same progressive argument that Woodrow Wilson made ("To make the world safe for democracy").
Edited on September 17, 2012 at 9:06pmJul '11
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
Good points.
Jul '12
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
We must have to go through this once every generation - the bleeding hearts declare the "End of History" like Francis Fukuyama did a few years ago, only to have history show up again a few years later.
We may be able to spread freedom across the world, but it will only be a shroud which covers the mountains of skulls of those who DIDN'T want freedom.
Apr '12
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
I guess I don't totally disbelieve the "universal desire for freedom" rhetoric, but I think we associate it too completely with our own liberal democratic ideals. Is a liberal democracy the only government within which humans can realize those freedoms to at least a significant degree? Remember that all freedoms have to be bounded by laws and social norms of some kind, and there is wide disagreement about what those should look like.
Dec '10
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
Liberal democracy is the only political manifestation in the history of mankind where such freedoms have taken hold. If we spread the philosophy of liberty the democracies might come of their own accord. We've got the cart before the horse thinking that simply giving people a fair election will create free societies.
Sep '10
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
Thanks for making the case against comforting, but potentially incorrect beliefs. Different cultures may have incompatible values. It's naive and arrogant to assume everyone shares ours. First-hand accounts, while anecdotal, are superior to the armchair analyses of Beltway insiders. If you're right, our policies in the Middle East are sadly misguided. So are the attempts, championed in other recent posts, to win them over with trade: a kind of commercial charm offensive.
May '10
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
There's a difference between saying all peoples are capable of freedom and saying all peoples are immediately capable of freedom.
For some nations, attaining freedom is like abused and neglected children learning love and discipline. Exposure to a better way often isn't enough to provoke change.
To someone raised in darkness, the sun is too bright to be loved. Offer a candle first.
Nov '11
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
The lack of an overarching 'imam of all imams' and the all-encompassing nature of Sharia does seem to militate against democracy: Witness the centrality of 'Justice' ('fairness', perhaps?) over 'Freedom' in their recent rhetoric. We may see window dressing: educating girls, etc. but not a wholehearted embrace of representative democracy as we have experienced it.
Apr '12
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
You're poetic as ever, Aaron. But is it really true that liberal democracy is the only kind of government that can protect the freedoms that we care about? Do we feel more free (in our heavily taxed and over-regulated day-to-day lives) than most citizens of European medieval monarchies? I'm dubious. Democracy has its weaknesses too, as we daily have proof.
I'm inclined to think that subsidiarity, more than democracy per se, is the key to a moderately-happy-and-stable Islamic world.
May '10
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
I agree, Rachel. As Steyn is fond of pointing out, advances in technology and affluence enable modern legislators to micromanage citizens to an extent medieval kings could not even if they wanted to.
Government is only a means to an end. Each nation should use a tool which fits its particular circumstances. Democracy isn't necessary for freedom, and perhaps not even optimal for all nations. A subject claimed but ignored by a distant king is as free as any American.
By what standards should governments be measured?
Does longevity matter? No government is infinite. Few last more than a century or two. Does it matter how a form a government is likely to end?
I'm sure of this much: Whatever the form of government, the right to possess weapons is necessary for defense against tyranny. With the power of individuals to demand freedom, the word "revolution" (return to the beginning) can have true meaning.
Whenever our government eventually crumbles, I hope America will become more like Europe; that there will emerge many separate nations with mutual interests. "European" refers to many peoples with a shared cultural inheritance. "American" could mean the same. The challenge then is national security.
May '10
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
By the way, for a concrete example of my earlier comment, consider the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many cheered when there was talk of democracy in Russia. I worried that they would try too much too fast.
Someone accustomed to having all their material needs guaranteed by government could benefit from a gradual transition to self-reliance. It's no wonder another strongman rose to power.
Apr '11
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
I thought I should note that this was profoundly not my experience in Iraq; were you there during the height of the violence? That might explain some of the difference, as might what I'd imagine was my perspective in a female dominated workplace with many high skilled Iraqi professionals.
Democracy can also be a means to good government. Canada, as well as the US, is a democracy.
Nov '10
Re: What If Muslims Just Don't Like Democracy?
James Of England
Democracy can also be a means to good government. Canada, as well as the US, is a democracy.
The US actually is a republic; the writers of the Constitution expressly designed the government to have as little democracy as possible while still being "of the people." A democracy is just a tyranny by the many, opposed to the usual tyranny by the few, or one. Hence, what we see with the "Arab Spring," or a HOA. A republic, especially as designed in the Constitution, slows down and dissipates that tyranny, to the point that hopefully it doesn't exist at all, at least for all those in the process somewhere (ie, the voters)