Democratic future ?
It is a mixed picture. The oil wealth has given the means for the growth of Arab world but it has not enhanced its human resources development – freedom of thought and expression, promotion of innovation and enterprise which the Arab world had centuries ago. Life expectancy has increased, literacy has gone up, educational and medical facilities have multiplied. However, there is a huge scientific and industrial gap.
During the Islamic Golden Age, between 8th and 13th century, Arab countries were the depositories of knowledge. After the fall of the Roman Empire and the dawn of the Middle Ages, Greek and Roman literature and heritage, were lost to the Europeans. However, they were translated and developed in Arab kingdoms. Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Istanbul and Toledo in Spain became the centers of science and knowledge. Art, architecture, literature, mathematics, algebra and chemistry flourished. Koranic injunctions include quest for knowledge such as ” Go in quest of knowledge even unto the distant China”, ” Ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of martyrs” etc.
Islam, a religion which spread far and wide, with the banner fraternity should have been the natural foundation for democracy but has aligned itself with the unbridled rule of dictators and kings. As Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian columnist has observed, Israel is ‘the opium of the Arabs’ and is also an excuse for the suppression of dissent. The oil money has enabled rulers to give sops to the people and buy allegiance. This does not befit a proud civilisation.
Of course, change has to come from within. The majority of Arabs are young, educated and exposed to TV and internet and this may stir a new awakening for freedom and democracy. Al-Jazeera television has attracted attention of the people with its fair reporting of the Arab world. There may be a ‘fever under the surface’, however, it may require moral support ( not war or weapons) from the democratic countries for a democratic transformation in the Middle East as oil and the fundamentalist Islam is an explosive mixture. A democratic and peaceful Middle East is in the interest of the Middle East and the world. The world has to bear even if democracy throws up some fundamentalist party for the time being. In addition to this, the Arab intellectuals have to highlight the democratic and pluralistic roots of Islam to fight the fundamentalist interpretation of Koran which may inevitably lead to the clash of civilisations. Only this reformation can bring about a renaissance in Islam and allow the Arab civilisation to flower and flourish in a democratic world.
(The writer can be contacted at 133, Bond Street, Bridgewater, NJ-08807, USA.)
