Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats A Report of the American Enterprise Institute Dissent and Reform in the Arab World Project Edited by Jeffrey Azarva, Danielle Pletka, and Michael Rubin The AEI Press Publisher for the American Enterprise Institute WASHINGTON, D.C. AEI Press Publisher for the American Enterprise Institute 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W. Washington D.C., 20036 www.aei.org/books © 2008 by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the American Enterprise Institute except in the case of brief quotations embodied in news articles, critical articles, or reviews. The views expressed in the publications of the American Enterprise Institute are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, advisory panels, officers, or trustees of AEI. Printed in the United States of America Contents INTRODUCTION, Jeffrey Azarva, Danielle Pletka, and Michael Rubin 1 PART I: ESSAYS BY PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS 9 1. BAHRAIN 11 Challenging Government Control of Media Omran Salman 11 2. EGYPT 19 Challenges to Democratization Ayat M. Abul-Futtouh 19 3. IRAQ 26 Pluralism—Its Wealth and Its Misery Haider Saeed 26 The Development of Shi’ite Islamic Political Theory Sama Hadad 32 4. JORDAN 41 Building a Political Will Jamil al-Nimri 41 The Challenge of Progress Emad Omar 51 5. LEBANON 59 Together: Equal but Different Jad al-Akhaoui 59 Hezbollah and the Problem of State Control Lokman Slim 63 A Country to Be Born Najat Sharafeddine 71 6. LIBYA 77 Has Rapprochement Worked? Mohamed Eljahmi 77 iii DISSENT AND REFORM IN THE ARAB WORLD 7. SYRIA 85 Mobilizing the Opposition Ammar Abdulhamid 85 8. YEMEN 93 A Country on the Brink Ali Saif Hassan 93 9. TUNISIA 98 Tunisia’s Election Was Undemocratic at All Levels Neila Charchour Hachicha 98 PART II: VOICES FROM THE REGION: A COLLECTION OF EDITORIALS FROM THE ARAB PRESS CALLING FOR REFORM 103 10. IN TUNISIA, THE SOUND OF ENFORCED SILENCE, Neila Charchour Hachicha 105 11. THE FAILURE OF THE INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL SYSTEM, Sherif Kamal 107 12. THE NECESSITY OF POLITICAL REFORM, Ibrahim Abdul Majid Saleh 109 13. ON THE BRIEF “DAMASCUS SPRING,” Shaaban Aboud 111 14. LET’S MAKE THE NEW WORLD, Naguib Mahfouz 113 15. IRAQ AND THE CHALLENGES OF CHANGE, Amr Ziab al-Tamimi 114 16. A NEW CALL FOR SELF-CRITICISM, Borhan Ghalion 116 17. KUWAITIS’ SERIOUSNESS IN REFORM, Eid al-Dowaihies 118 18. POLITICAL REFORM IS THE ROAD TO ALL REFORM, Said al-Gamal 120 19. A FRAMEWORK FOR POLITICAL AND SOCIAL REFORM IN SYRIA, Yassin al-Haj Saleh 122 iv The editors would like to thank Suzanne Gershowitz for her assistance in the early stages of this project. Introduction Jeffrey Azarva, Danielle Pletka, and Michael Rubin Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, In Washington, the strategic shift met with skepti- U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East prioritized cism. Some within the U.S. foreign policy elite criti- stability. At the height of the Cold War, makers of cized the freedom agenda as a jump from the frying U.S. foreign policy offered tacit support if not outright pan to the fire—a strategic blunder that would under- backing to pro-Western authoritarian regimes they mine the war on terror and empower the very viewed as bulwarks against Soviet expansion and as Islamists the United States and its Arab allies had reliable purveyors of oil. Democracy promotion was sought to marginalize. Those who subscribed to the not a priority. The collapse of the Soviet Union did school of cultural relativism also believed it an exer- not lead to a fundamental reassessment among cise in futility. They argued that the precepts of Islam Washington strategists. In U.S. policy circles, conven- and Arab political culture were antithetical to the tional wisdom remained that partnerships with ethos of democracy. Ridding the Arab world of illiberal Arab governments, no matter how unsavory, tyranny was simply too quixotic: how could the would best serve U.S. national security. United States push for democracy in a region devoid The shock of the September 11, 2001, terrorist of democrats? attacks shattered the belief that autocratic leaders in Yet, despite the belief that the Middle East was Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere were stabilizing a region destined to be contested by either auto- agents who could deliver peace and tamp down cratic elites or a theocratic alternative, liberal Arab Islamic extremism. Following the attacks, many U.S. democrats did—and do—exist. Neither liberalism policymakers and academics reassessed conventional nor advocacy for reform and democracy in the wisdom and suggested that Arab autocracies were the Middle East is a foreign imposition. Even before crux of the problem. Officials questioned whether it U.S. policymakers began speaking of democracy tak- was these dictatorships’ contempt for the rule of law ing root in the Middle East, Arab dissidents, journal- and freedom of the press, as well as their suppression ists, and civil society activists spoke of an Arab of peaceful dissent, that lay behind the radicalization malaise and the need for political, social, and eco- and violence. Accordingly, the White House dispensed nomic reform. In the years following the 1990 Iraqi with the status quo of previous decades and articu- invasion of Kuwait, Arab intellectuals rethought their lated a new policy that pinned U.S. national interests societies’ political stagnation. Increasingly, even state- to the Middle East’s democratic reconfiguration. run newspapers pushed the boundaries of acceptable 1 DISSENT AND REFORM IN THE ARAB WORLD political dialogue. The world of political criticism, from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, long limited to a discussion of Palestinian aspirations Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. Each conference was the for freedom, suddenly expanded. culmination of a week-long program designed to give Arab democrats began to exploit the political space participants unvarnished access to the Washington available to them after the liberation of Kuwait. And policymaking community, and a months-long process their voices were heard—not, ironically in the foreign of consultations, questioning, and discussion. After ministries of the Western world or in their embassy meeting with a bipartisan array of congressional staff chancelleries, but rather in the halls of power in the and policymakers in the State Department, Defense Middle East. Indeed, it was these classical liberals, Department, and National Security Council, as well as even more than the Islamists, who Arab governments members of the nongovernmental organization com- targeted with the instruments of state repression. munity and U.S. and Arab media, the participants Their collective voice has since helped not only to returned home with both a better sense of how U.S. discredit the autocrat-theocrat dichotomy, but also to policy is formulated and a support network that can dispel the Western myth that democracy is an alien provide leverage against entrenched governments. concept to the Arab world. The following essays by project participants attest But while their ranks have increased with the to the fact that realizing democracy in the Arab world post-9/11 upturn in U.S. rhetoric and support, is both a desirable and daunting task. These pieces democracy activists continue to face an uphill battle. not only confirm that the democracy debate exists in At home, they remain squeezed. Many dissidents the Middle East, but also reveal that it is nuanced. operate on a tilted playing field that pits them against For instance, in countries like Yemen and Bahrain, authoritarian and Islamist forces, unwitting bedfellows activists seek to break the state monopoly over com- determined to prevent the emergence of any liberal munications. In other states, such as Syria and Tunisia, alternative. Those dissidents who do persist find them- repression permeates society more deeply, and the selves undercut by a lack of resources and an inability reforms sought are more fundamental. to coordinate with democracy activists in other Arab The essays also show that while the freedom countries or with policymakers in the West. agenda made headway during the so-called Arab To remedy this, the American Enterprise Institute Spring of 2005—Egypt’s first ever multicandidate (AEI) inaugurated the Dissent and Reform in the Arab presidential vote that September followed free World project to enable prominent Arab democracy elections in Iraq and the Palestinian territories in activists first to write about the challenges to dissent January—regional potentates are still committed to and reform in their own countries; and then to estab- strangling opposition in the cradle. Today, a quick lish working relationships with each other and a wide survey of the countries featured in Dissent and Reform array of U.S. policymakers in order to obviate the reveals that with nostalgia for realism on the rise need for a middleman in transmitting their messages. among U.S. policymakers, many Arab leaders have They should no longer need to rely on the good begun to roll back on reform. graces of Western diplomats, too often uninterested in shaking up the status quo. AEI provided both a venue and administrative support, but it did not intervene in Egypt shaping the content of their message. In 2006, AEI worked to identify those activists Nowhere has this backsliding been more dis- who have advocated freedom of the press, gender cernible than in Egypt, where democracy and civil equality, religious tolerance, economic liberalization, society activists have come under increasing fire electoral reform, and a host of other reforms. During from the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Once con- the course of the year, AEI held three public confer- sidered the linchpin for U.S.