by DANIELE CASTELLANI PERELLI
The debate concerning the compatibility between democracy and the Arab-Islamic world has started again, and there is no website, no newspaper or magazine that isn’t discussing the issue. Larry Diamond has again spoken out in The Atlantic, where he wrote that “Egypt is at a point that could make a transition to democracy feasible.” Of course, the constitution will have to be rewritten, and the electoral and judicial systems reformed as well as institutions and the police, new power must be given to political parties, to the mass media and to civil society’s organizations, however, “the authoritarian exceptionalism of the Arab world could begin to draw to an end.” It is too soon to exalt, but great optimism reigns everywhere. In the New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman presented the Arab world’s historical moment of change with his usual clever use of words, as always very effectively. “B.E., Before Egypt. A.E., After Egypt”. The Economist also celebrated these events (“A democratic Egypt could once again be a beacon to the region. It could help answer the conundrum of how to incorporate Islam in Arab democracies.”), while on Dissent Jo-Ann Mort wrote, “The revolution happening in Egypt today is the beginning of something different for the Arab world. It offers America and Israel a young and educated constituency with which to engage —and a similar constituency exists in the West Bank and, yes, even in Gaza. They are hungry for their chance to better their own countries, and they are looking less for enemies than for their own self-fulfilment. Israel and the United States need democracy in Egypt as much as the Egyptian people need it for themselves.”
This is the beginning of a new era, and international analysts are wondering which political scenarios will now appear in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. Will “Arab democracy” be the Islamic kind? “And now we’ll test the theory that politicians and scholars have long debated. Will a more democratic Egypt become a radical Islamic state? Can democracy work in the Arab world?” asked Fareed Zakaria in Time, and argued that the Islamist danger is exaggerated by the media. “I remain convinced that fears of an Egyptian theocracy are vastly overblown. Shi’ite Iran is a model for no country — certainly not a Sunni Arab society like Egypt.” There is rather the risk of a “illiberal democracy” as in Russia, and, as far as the Muslim Brotherhood is concerned, its success derives from the fact its members were persecuted and banned for decades. “Once it has to compete in the marketplace of ideas, it might find that, as in many Muslim countries, people are more worried about issues of governmental competence, corruption and growth than grand ideological statements.”
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