How To Save The Arab World

Wherever Muslim fundamentalists have been involved in day-to-day politics--Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran--their luster has worn off. People have realized that the streets still have to be cleaned, government finances have to be managed and education attended to. The mullahs can preach, but they cannot rule. For this reason, Iran might well hold out the greatest promise for liberal democracy and secular politics in the Middle East. Having lived under Islamic fundamentalist rule, Iranians are now inoculated against its appeal. It may take another decade or two, and risking that long--and bumpy--roller-coaster ride is dangerous for countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But if these regimes were to open up some political space and force their fundamentalist foes to grapple with practical realities rather than spin dreams, they will find it cannot but dull the extremists' allure. Islamic fundamentalists must stop being seen as distant heroes and viewed instead as local politicians.

A consummate politician, Tip O'Neill, once said that all politics is local. So is the politics of rage. The frustrations of ordinary Arabs are not about the clash of civilizations or the rise of McDonald's or the imperial foreign policy of the United States. They are a response to living under wretched, repressive regimes with few economic opportunities and no political voice. And they blame America for supporting these regimes. For those who think that this problem is unique to the Arab world or that Arabs will never change, remember that 25 years ago the most virulent anti-American protests would have taken place in countries like Chile, Mexico and South Korea. The reasons were the same--people disliked the regimes that ruled them and they saw America as the benefactor of those regimes. Then these dictatorships liberalized, people's lives improved, political reform followed economic reform and anti-U.S. sentiment has quieted down to the usual protests against the Americanization of their cultures. With Osama bin Laden's decline, perhaps the Middle East will move on a similar path; violence, religious extremism and terrorism will be drained out of the political culture and, instead, its people can join the rest of the world in worrying about the threat from McDonald's and "Baywatch." That kind of anti-Americanism will be a sign of a healthy political culture.

With Christopher Dickey in Amman and Cairo

© 2001