Your Trial Version Has Expired…Its Time to Live.

I came across an interesting figure today. Fareed Zakaria recently joined a well known news station as a world affairs analyst. He is the editor of Newsweek International and has become a well known and respected figure on US and global relations. He believes on examining this dynamic not from a “look out the window and see the rest of the world view,” but from a “stand outside and look in” view. In other words, he believes the US should formulate their foreign policy by encompassing how other nations view us, instead of just focusing on how the US views other nations.

I came across the title phrase when reading a bio on him. The phrase was tied to his views on bringing liberty to less stable and secure nations. He believes democracy does not bring about economic or social stability, but rather occurs in the reverse order. Helping a nation modernize its economic and social policies leads it to be a more stable and secure entity, which in turn leads towards an overall liberalization. As this becomes a more inherent part of a nation, democracy becomes a more feasible institution of government…meaning liberalization of a society allows for a better acceptance of democracy by the larger population.

Based on the above, he criticizes the present administration’s policy of bringing about democracy to other nations by forcing elections, where there have been little or none for decades and generations. Without building effective and stable economic, financial and social institutions, elections for them are essentially useless and benign.

I see his point in stating the above. There’s no motivation for the larger population to accept democracy, other than it being a lofty US ideal. The nations in which the US is supporting these elections and trying to institute democracy, there’s an undercurrent of resentment against the US…so it brings about the question, why would they view democracy as anything but another western-world attempt to secularize their religious world?

Given the close attachment that people in the Middle East feel to their faith of Islam and how much their identity revolves around their faith, it will be admittedly difficult to liberalize the society to achieve democracy, as Zakaria states is a precursor. I personally find Islam to be a philosophically liberating and empowering faith. Islam provides guidelines/rules to conduct every aspect of life from marriage to business to governance to friendship and can be defined as a moderately conservative faith. Putting forth liberalization as associated with the western world in this region will be met with much resentment and suspicion. What if liberalization that stays within the parameters of the faith of Islam is put forth instead?

Islam does not discourage trade, or setting up of financial institutions or education of women, or governance by elected officials. The requirements and success of each institution is well described and documented in the Quran and the Hadith during the time of the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh). To truly achieve progress and success of stability and peace within these nations, one has to look no further than the very institution that is being used to de-stabilize it: Islam…not the fundamentalist view, but the original, moderate Islam.

Foreign powers should try to understand that the best way to help the nations in this region is to bring them back to their Islamic roots. Would it be possible to base foreign policy towards these nations based on Islamic mandates? For example, forums or workshops to educate women in the manner they were conducted during the life of the Prophet (pbuh), foreign financial institutions that follow the Shariah being introduced in these countries, trading with them on Islamic trade principles…even if it’s on a micro-scale.

Instead of forcing a foreign system on these nations (Western = foreign = unwanted), how about transitioning in a system that’s based on what defines their identity? How about working with them to build a nation based on the true moderate Islamic principles?

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