Prof. Siddiqui: Arab World Can Formulate its Ideal Democracy
Prof. Siddiqui, professor of political science and director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Exeter, UK said that the Arab countries do have the potential to set up a democratic model that meets their special requirements.
In his lecture delivered on Monday 15 Dec. 2008 in the Center for Business Management, College of Commerce and organized by SCSS in coordination with Sana'a University Prof. Siddiqui said that democracy, as a mode of representing people’s different views, has its Arab and Islamic roots. But he considers that the call for democracy within the framework of the greater Middle East made such democracy look like a new western religion based on extreme western narcissism that would accommodate no other democratic system outside that narcissistic concept that emerged in the Age of Enlightenment .
Prof. Siddiqui also said that democracy can not be confined to the narrow political sphere. It is rather multifaceted and exists in various religions and cultures and has several denotations.
In this regard Siddiqui reminded of the liberation tendency of some ancient Arab thinkers who promoted democratic values through poetry, prose, etc.
He also thinks that post-modernist studies now focus on exploring the unrevealed aspects in the western understanding of democracy. He believes that the project that calls for a greater Middle East under the pretext of democratizing the Arab World, is just an attempt to impose democracy on the Arab world without paying respect to the ethics of democracy. As an example, forums on the Middle East usually deviate from their original objectives to discuss unannounced issues that aim at bringing Arabs and Israelis closer. Therefore, such attempts turn into guided events that by no means help the process of democratization in the Arab world. Such events also ignore the Arab cultural and democratic potentials that could be utilized to help promote democratic models that respond to the special requirements of the Arab environment. However, Siddqui warned against transforming such special requirements into a cover for dictatorship and tyranny..
He pointed out to some democratic experiences that are worth studying such as the parliament experience in Kuwait, the union movement in Egypt, and the Personal Status Code in Tunisia.
Siddiqui also criticized the sacred halo surrounding the nation state which is no longer in vogue even in its original birthplace, Europe which is now working for its integration under the European Union.
