Islam and Elections

2004 Report (Continued)


Mustapha Tlili's Opening Statements

Your Royal Highness,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends:

Thank you all for being here, and for those who are participants in this workshop, thank you for accepting our invitation. I will not make a long speech, but rather offer a few observations, which I hope will frame the debate.

This workshop is a follow-up to a recommendation of the conference organized by Dialogues: Islamic World-U.S.-The West in Granada, Spain in October 2002 on the theme “Clash of Civilizations or Clash of Perceptions?” I refer you to the conference’s report which has been made available to you in the original English as well as in an Arabic version.

From the outset, let me make it clear that, faithful to both the letter and the spirit of the Granada report, we do not intend this workshop to “form part of a democracy promotion agenda.” Rather, our aim is to initiate a “focused dialogue among equals” on how the Islamic normative system addresses the issue of just governance.

Before I address the substance of what gathers us here, let me first thank Carnegie Corporation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for their generous financial assistance, which has made this workshop possible. My most sincere thanks go also to you, Your Royal Highness, for hosting us here in Amman. Not only are you as always a wonderful and most gracious host, but your intellectual insights, vast breadth of knowledge, high moral convictions, and truly independent mind make you a source of inspiration to me, as well as to my colleagues. We are deeply grateful to you.

Ladies and gentlemen: few will dispute the assertion that there is a striking deficit of good governance in the Muslim world—absence of rule of law, of freedom of expression, of transparency, of accountability of the governors to the governed—the list goes on. Some call these civilized ways of life “democracy” but, as I mentioned earlier, good governance is also supported by Islamic scripture and tradition. Those familiar with the Islamic heritage would readily admit as much. So whether we call this governing compact a democratic system or a system of good governance matters little in the end. What matters is the substance, not the form. Islam provides the substance. The question is how to articulate this substance in workable institutions and processes.

Some who were invited to this conference could not come because they are engaged, this very month, in elections in their countries. This is the case in Algeria and also in Malaysia, where one invitee had to decline our invitation at the last minute after originally accepting. He is, as we speak, involved in mobilizing his party, the Parti Islam se-Malaysia or PAS, for the parliamentary elections, which were recently moved up to early March. As I said, elections will also be taking place shortly in Algeria—for president, in this case. And sometime later this year, there will be presidential elections in Indonesia and Tunisia as well. The point is, elections are taking place in various parts of the Muslim world, and in some cases, opposition parties are participating in the process. The question is whether the form—elections—and the substance—good governance—will meet. Elections do not necessarily deliver good governance, and elections that do not deliver the substance of good governance will remain an empty exercise. The objective is for the two to coincide.

Over the last few years, the word “democracy” has become perceived by many as an ideological weapon, wielded by various camps for objectives other than achieving the substance of good governance. From the perspective of non-Western peoples, the term “democracy” has become highly suspect in its use by some Westerners, particularly in reference to the Muslim world—as suspect as the concept of human rights became during the Cold War. Many in the Muslim world sadly note that some Western circles tend to emphasize not good governance itself but a sort of metaphysical concept—difficult to understand and impossible to implement, especially if one has not been formed within the tradition of Western learning. It is often said in the Muslim world that few among these new knights of democracy realize that Islam and the Islamic value system also offer ways to achieve good governance. And because of this terrible ignorance, fused with an overwhelming arrogance, the arrogance of power—it is widely argued in Muslim countries—these same advocates of democratization will not hesitate to launch wars and conquests in the name of their ideological objectives. Ladies and gentlemen: how, in view of recent events, can we fail to admit that these are legitimate concerns? This brings me to my next point.

The Islamic world has, of late, been subjected to tremendous pressure and has become a target for ideologues of various inclinations. More and more, following in the footsteps of Samuel Huntington (the famous—or, should I say, the infamous?—prophet of the “Clash of Civilizations”), even some “scholars” of Islam, both in the United States and Europe, have slowly slid from criticizing “political Islam” to criticizing Islam as a whole. In doing so, they have gradually made Islam and its value system the object of questioning, impugning it for its supposed incompatibility with what they call democracy. And so it is more and more fashionable these days, whether in Paris, London, Washington, or New York, to attend seminars, panel discussions, and other high-toned gatherings where the big question is whether Islam is compatible with democracy. I am sure that some of you in this room are familiar with these exercises, which, to my mind, are missing the point.

As a student of Jacques Derrida, the great French philosopher of our times, I have learned the value of deconstructing discourses, especially when they are wrapped in supposedly altruistic and moral intentions. Searching for the course beneath the discourse, for the real intention beneath the wrapping—searching for the true agenda that drives the apparently altruistic policy—is, in my view, an absolute requirement for any objective mind in these days of confusion. How can we not read between the lines of calls for “democratization” by those who seem to care little about the terrible suffering of Palestinians, Iraqis, Chechens?—about the unfathomable economic and social ills that engulf the vast majority of the world population?—about the victims of repressive regimes (whether in the Muslim world or elsewhere) that they have supported? And therefore, shouldn’t reading the true intentions behind the slogans be incumbent on any one who sincerely cares about the future of the Muslim world and wants its peoples to make progress toward better governance?

At this workshop, we offer another road for tackling the questions that are vital for Muslim societies as for any other society today. How can we achieve a political-social compact that will guarantee what everyone among us here, and I would say any civilized human being, aspires to: the rule of law, freedom of expression, freedom of belief, transparency, accountability of the governors to the governed, social justice? We are not, however, asking whether Islam is compatible or incompatible with democracy—and I am sure that by now it is clear why. Dialogues: Islamic World-U.S.-The West, the program that I am proud to have founded and which I direct at the World Policy Institute at New School University, aims to consider fundamental issues of the Islamic-Western encounter not from the conventional perspective of the day but by examining the issues’ civilizational and intellectual roots. There is no doubt in my mind that one of the most complex and sensitive issues in the current debate on Islam and its relations with the West is the issue of governance. It’s a fact that wars have been launched and more are reportedly planned in the name of democracy—and thus to simply acquiesce to the conventional wisdom would be to admit that confusion is clarity. It would be to buy into slogans and to accord them the high moral ground simply because they are supported by powerful states. This should not be, which brings me to my final point.

If we sincerely want the Muslim world to achieve good governance, it would seem to me that as a matter of simple courtesy we should respect the heritage, the traditions, and the identity of one of the greatest civilizations in world history. The Qur’an, the ,hadith, the great philosophers—Al Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Khaldoun—all command us to seek goodness, to respect our fellow human being, to be truthful, to live in peace and harmony with others and with our environment, to refrain from doing harm. These are universal values. They are at the core of the Islamic value system. They are at the core of all universal moral systems, whether derived from the Greek tradition, the Jewish tradition, or the Christian tradition. And these are the values that underpin the moral systems from which Western political tradition has sprung. But each civilization and culture has, at its own pace, found and developed its own way of articulating the specifics of its governing compact based on the universal principles common to the legacies I just mentioned. The West has a head start on this undoubtedly. The Muslim world is now grappling with these issues. Shouldn’t it have the right to find its own way?

And so in conclusion, I say: we are here to listen to you—you the representatives of Muslim political parties and movements, Muslim scholars, non-Muslim scholars, elections experts, commentators. We are here to learn from you. But before we open the debate, my friend and colleague, Richard Bulliet, Professor of History at Columbia University and senior advisor to Dialogues, will introduce the background paper of the workshop.

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© 2006, The Center for Dialogues: Islamic World - U.S. - The West

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