(DOWNLOAD) "Living with Democracy in Egypt." by The Humanist # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Living with Democracy in Egypt.
- Author : The Humanist
- Release Date : January 01, 2005
- Genre: Reference,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 311 KB
Description
HOSNI MUBAREK WAS ALMOST elected president of Egypt in September 2005. Not that the seventy-seven-year-old secular autocrat who has ruled that nation for the past twenty-four years lost the election; by the official count, he took nearly 85 percent of the vote. His nearest competitor, Ayman Nour, the upstart head of the fledgling opposition party al-Ghad ("Tomorrow"), managed less than 8 percent. The only other candidate to take any significant tally was the aged No-man Gamaa of the venerable al-Wafd ("Delegation") party, who managed less than 3 percent. The Ikhwan al-Muslimeen ("Muslim Brotherhood"), feared by so many Westerners for its purist Islamic social and political agenda, didn't even field a candidate. Mubarek's decisive victory would seem to be reassuring to most people--particularly secular Americans--worried for the future of the few Western-friendly, moderate Arab regimes, threatened as they are by the Islamicization of politics in the region. The Bush administration would also seem to have reason to be pleased, given its recent change of heart about Arab democracy. The missing chemical weapons in Iraq and subsequent justification of the war there as precedent for democratization have inspired the White House to push for as many elections as possible in the region. In fact, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at the American University in Cairo in June, she announced to some surprise that "for sixty years" the United States had been mistaken in "pursu[ing] stability at the expense of democracy" in the Middle East. For generations, U.S. pundits were sure that the "Arab street" couldn't be trusted with the vote, as they might hand over power to communists or fundamentalist Islamists. Realpolitik dictated that autocrats and dictators, like Mubarek and Saddam Hussein, had to be coddled in order to maintain "stability" in the region. If they would then stage elections or dispense with them altogether, deny free speech, and let loose secret police to terrorize the population, the White House would likely turn a blind eye. But if Mubarek could now claim a true democratic mandate, that would be the best of all worlds.
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