TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
Bahamas Blog International
Bahamas Blog International
The moral recession in democracies
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

By MUQTEDAR KHAN*

I have, for years, been a strong advocate of democracy, primarily inspired by my experience with American freedoms.

As a Muslim who speaks his mind and asks critical questions, I am routinely threatened and maligned by those who, unable to cope with my reason and critique, seek to silence me. American democracy gave me the protection and the opportunity to live life as God intended humans to -- as thinking, reflecting and expressive beings.

I helped form an organization to promote democracy in the Muslim world and wrote a book making the argument that democracy was essential for good Islamic governance. However, in the past few years, democracy has repeatedly let advocates like me down. Let me give you a few examples.

Tony Blair, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney invaded a country and caused death and destruction in the face of opposition by millions of their own citizens. The invasion of Iraq was a grotesque war crime that democracy could not prevent. Over a million Iraqis died as a direct consequence of the war. Today many thousands of children would be alive, many thousands of families would be intact and we would not have 250,000 homeless refugees strewn over three continents if the US and UK -- both democracies -- had not invaded Iraq. Iraqis have suffered in many ways.

Today, thanks to our "democracy promotion," there are hundreds of Iraqi women forced into prostitution just to feed their children. They have surely been liberated. Now they meet "new people" on a daily basis for $8 a day!

Laws have been passed in Britain and the US that make a mockery of the idea of freedom. Discourses have been advanced that have distorted the very idea of morality. Leaders who have repeatedly lied to their own people have been repeatedly elected to office. Killing civilians by the hundreds, torturing people, kidnapping and bribing have become the standard operating procedures of democracies. Democracies are operating like mafias and behaving just as brutally.

Today citizens of democracies cannot even distinguish between a war criminal, a thug, a mass murderer and a statesman. In India, Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, orchestrated a genocide against minorities in 2002. The state machinery worked with thugs to kill over 2,000 people, destroyed thousands of businesses and rendered over 100,000 homeless. He was condemned worldwide by human rights organizations, but in the world's biggest democracy, he was re-elected to power. In fact an Indian-American, Sonal Shah, who was closely associated with him and his group, is on President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.

Apparently, democracies today have no problem with leaders with bloody hands. This moral decline of democracies is the direct consequence of the war on terror. Citizens have been told that the enemy is so evil that any evil means used to battle the enemy are justified. The egregious acts of terror that continue, accompanied by the global media, which magnify and dramatize them, have blunted the moral sensibilities of citizens to the point that they not only accept whatever their governments do but also applaud them for it.

This week the Holy Land saw one of the most deadly days in its history as Israel massacred over 200 Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinians have not experienced anything like this since 1948, when two Jewish terrorist gangs, Irgun and Lehi, massacred 254 Palestinians in a village called Deir Yassin.

For a week before the Israeli retaliatory strikes, Hamas fired over 100 rockets into Israel without killing anyone but providing the necessary justification for Israel, whose rockets and missiles have now killed over 250 and injured over 300.

As I listen to statements from the Bush administration, who blames Hamas alone for all the violence, and while the Messiah himself is holidaying in Hawaii, I am amazed at the complete lack of humanity in their response. There is absolutely not an iota of sympathy or regret or grief for those who died. It is as if their hearts are made of stone.

Whether in the US or even in Israel, terrorism is not just threatening lives, but is slowly destroying the humanity of these nations.

Hamas shot a few rockets into Israel, but that is who they are and that is what they do -- they are a terrorist organization.

Israel and the US, however, are supposed to be democracies that care about human rights. But when they massacre hundreds of people and their citizens watch in silence, no protests, no shock, then there is something fundamentally wrong.

I still believe in democracy. I think it is a great system of governance. But I also fear that today democracies are not only experiencing economic recession but also a moral recession.

We are gradually accepting things that until recently were taboo. In combating terrorist organizations, we have steadily lowered the moral bar with which we have traditionally judged the worth of democracies. Torture, kidnapping, assassinations and now massacres have become justifiable; what next?

Unless we wake up and change course very soon, there may be no difference left between democracy and terrorism, and that will be the ultimate victory for terrorism.


todayszaman.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Dr. Muqtedar Khan is director of Islamic studies at the University of Delaware and fellow of the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (www.ijtihad.org).


31 December 2008

January 1, 2009 | 12:26 PM Comments  1 comments

Tags:
You must be logged in to add tags.


Comments

meggyn Meggyn
August 30, 2009 | 3:19 PM

You make a very valid point here. I am a Canadian, who lives under a so-called democratic government, which seems to be repeatedly letting down it's people. Morality, overall, in the world seems to have taken a downturn over the past two decades. I sometimes believe that nobody - our governments nor our people, possess s moral conscious anymore.
Dennis Dames's Profile


Latest Posts
Rastafari: Ja's...
Caribbean countries...
Jamaica: The gay...
Gambling and human...
Gorbachev Russia’s...

Monthly Archive
December 1969
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011
November 2011
December 2011
January 2012
February 2012

Change Language


Tags Archive
america american bahamas barack caribbean crime crisis cuba cuban democracy development economic economy financial global health history ict4d individualeconomy international investment obama people political revolution trade war washington world

Links
A+ Links Int'l
Affiliate Marketplace
Bahamas Dames
Bahamas Political Blog
Bahamas Search
Bahamian Phone Cards
Blog Directory
Blog Directory
Blogadr
BlogExplosion
Caribbean Blog International
Cheap Int'l Calling Cards
Crooks Blog
DAD's Matchmaking Online
Dating Network
Dennis Dames Hotels...
Dennis Dames Online...
Dennis Dames Pages Online
Free Paid Web Directory
LS Blogs
Politics Blogs
Top Web Blogs
Vote For Me
Woo Love Poems Menu


2495879 views
Important Disclaimer