Democracy In Arab Eyes: After ‘Democratic' Invaders Have Killed A Million People
09 October 2010By Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban
On the International Day of Democracy, satellite TV
channels focused on the type of democracy imported,
together with blood baths, disasters, wars and
American invasions charged with hatred and oppression
for Muslims. Democracy was talked about as an ideal,
regardless of people's living standards, the disasters
befalling them and the gutters they are sent to under
the pretext of raising the standard of political
action to the level of ‘democracy'.
In Iraq, a fifth of the population has become
illiterate after ‘democratic' invaders have killed a
million people, including thousands of scientists and
intellectuals. Mesopotamian memory is full of millions
of tragic stories about widows, orphans, poverty,
killing and violence brought about by the Americans.
No one in the Western media writes about the life of
these people or tries to assess the actual destruction
of the quality of these people's lives. The same
applies to Afghanistan and Pakistan which have been
torn by violence and war and the daily killing by
American drones. American talk about ‘democracy' is
completely isolated from providing water, electricity,
schools, work, security and dignity. So, what is this
democracy, and what are its objectives if it does not
aim at improving people's lives?
No one tried to link this International Day of
Democracy to what has happened in Turkey, where an
Islamic democracy is growing, based on an
unprecedented popular mandate. The constitution has
been amended in accordance with the results of a
referendum based on national needs not the narrow
private interests as the custom is in Western
democracies.
The media coverage of 9/11, The International Day of
Democracy and the referendum in Turkey was intent on
spreading hatred against Islam. Manifestations of
Islamophobia in Western democracies persisted by
putting pictures which offend Muslims on magazine
covers, burning holy books - Hitler style - spreading
fanatic concepts against Islam and linking Islam to
increasing violence in the world, while ignoring all
forms of violence, oppression, killing and wars which
Muslims are subjected to at the hands of non-Muslims.
What happened in Turkey is an expression of the
essence of Islamic democracy based on the power of
ideas and logic, not on coup d'etats encouraged by the
West in Turkey and other countries in South America,
Asia and the Middle East.
The problem today is that our language, values and
ideas have become a tool used by the other to speak
for us and about the crimes it is committing against
us in our countries, while we sit and watch our own
news from the other's perspective and its coverage of
our suffering through its racist lens. The danger here
is for us to continue in this negative posture until
we diminish and disappear altogether and leave behind
the story written about us by the colonizer. Our
stories will disappear under the flow of artistic,
linguistic and political material produced by
organizations fuming with hatred against Muslims and
promoted as ‘democratic' aiming at liberating people
from backwardness and tyranny.
A number of countries, particularly in Asia, have
realized the danger of what is going on. So, Asia has
become a pioneer of scientific and technological
advance; its share of published articles increased
from 13 percent in 1980 to over 30 per cent in 2009
according to Thomson Reuters indicators. Turkey is
rising, as did Malaysia and Iran in terms of
scientific research and university education which is
the foundation of every industrial, agricultural or
even political achievement.
What is worrying about this is conditions in the Arab
world whose status has reflected on all scientific and
research indicators, even on reading and publishing
indicators to an unacceptable level. The Arabic
language has seen a frightening retreat under the
aegis of Arab ministries of education as a result of
the concept promoted by our enemies that their
language is the language of science and knowledge, and
that the language of the Quran cannot assimilate
modern sciences. I know of no other nation whose
children are taught in private schools and
universities in a language not their own. Here the
problem starts when we become non-active recipients of
knowledge and scientific production. It follows that
we become non-active on the political, cultural and
human arenas. Some of us even become parrots repeating
Western phrases of hatred against Arabs.
Recent studies have shown that the mother tongue
shapes people's attitudes because it determines
people's intellectual habits and directs their
experience and their positions in life. That is why we
see most countries today insist on using their mother
language, except Arab countries, where the Arabic
language is suffering unprecedented official neglect.
Most private schools and universities now use English
or French; and those who want to study Arabic find it
difficult to find an Arab university that teaches
different sciences in Arabic.
I am trying to connect the complete political absence
of Arab countries on the international scene - except
when they are called upon by necessities of American
public relations - with the deliberate neglect of
language, heritage and culture. If people are not the
product of their language, culture and the different
components of their civilization, what are they? If
democracy does not aim at improving the living
standards of people, making them happy and improving
the different aspects of their lives, what else should
it be?
The more serious problem is that, we, Arabs, have
become recipients of Western systems when it comes to
our causes and interests. When an Arab or Muslim
country provides an illuminating experience to the
world, it is usually talked about aside from its
Muslim identity, and without any link between it and
the civilization of Islam or the region.
Malaysia has provided a good model for democracy as a
Muslim country. So did Turkey. But this does not have
any impact on Western media which insist on promoting
Islamophobia and its disgraceful manifestations, like
burning holy books, offending Muslim sanctities and
targeting them with violence, terrorism and oppression
in the West and elsewhere. Rising oppression of
Muslims in Western countries and depriving them of
freedoms, coupled with the tragedies caused by the
‘democratic' Western invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan
and what is happening today in Pakistan, represents
only one aspect of the modern history of Western
democracy that is characterized by its thirst for the
blood of Muslims.
Prof. Bouthaina Shaaban is Political and Media
Advisor at the Syrian Presidency, and former Minister
of Expatriates. She is also a writer and professor at
Damascus University since 1985. She's got Ph.D. in
English Literature from Warwick University, London.
She was the spokesperson for Syria. She was nominated
for Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
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