The World of Religions No. 47, May-June 2011 —
The wind of freedom blowing through Arab countries in recent months is worrying Western chancelleries. Traumatized by the Iranian revolution, we supported dictatorships for decades that were supposed to be a bulwark against Islamism. We cared little that the most fundamental human rights were flouted, that freedom of expression did not exist, that democrats were imprisoned, that a small corrupt caste was plundering all the country's resources for its own benefit... We could sleep peacefully: these docile dictators were protecting us from the possible seizure of power by uncontrollable Islamists. What we see today is that these peoples are revolting because they aspire, like us, to two values that are the foundation of human dignity: justice and freedom. It was not bearded ideologues who launched these revolts, but desperate unemployed youth, educated and indignant men and women, citizens of all social classes who are demanding an end to oppression and inequity. People who want to live freely, for resources to be more fairly shared and distributed, for justice and an independent press to exist. These people, whom we thought were only capable of living under the iron fist of a good dictator, are today giving us an exemplary lesson in democracy. Let us hope that chaos or a violent takeover will not smother the flames of freedom. And how can we pretend to forget that two centuries ago, we made our revolutions for the same reasons ?
Certainly, political Islamism is poison. From the assassination of Coptic Christians in Egypt to that of the governor of Punjab in favor of revising the blasphemy law in Pakistan, they continue to sow terror in the name of God, and we must fight with all our might against the growth of this evil. But it is certainly not by supporting ruthless dictatorships that we will stop it, quite the contrary. We know that Islamism feeds on hatred of the West, and a good part of this hatred comes precisely from this double discourse that we constantly hold in the name of realpolitik : yes to the great democratic principles, no to their application in Muslim countries to better control them. I would add that this fear of the Islamists taking power seems less and less plausible to me. Not only because the spearheads of the current revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, or Algeria are very far removed from Islamist circles, but also because, even if Islamic parties will necessarily play an important role in the future democratic process, they have extremely little chance of holding a majority. And even if that were to happen, as in Turkey in the mid-1990s, it is not certain that the population would authorize them to establish Sharia law and free them from electoral sanctions. Peoples trying to get rid of long dictatorships have little desire to fall under the yoke of new despots who would take away their long-desired and hard-won freedom. The Arab peoples have observed the Iranian experience very closely and are perfectly aware of the tyranny that the ayatollahs and mullahs exercise over the whole of society. It is not at a time when Iranians are seeking to escape the cruel theocratic experiment that their neighbors are likely to dream of it. Let us therefore put aside our fears and base political calculations to enthusiastically and wholeheartedly support the people who are rising up against their tyrants.