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SPEAKING
FREELY
Saudi elections and Western
myths
By Amir Butler
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click here
if you are interested in
contributing.
Since September 11,
2001, much has been written about a supposed
struggle within Islam between the forces of
religious fundamentalism and "progressiveness".
It's no secret that many in the West have backed
the latter in this two-horse race for the hearts
and souls of the Muslim world.
With its
promise of secularization, a feminist-led
reworking of traditional gender roles, and a
willingness to reinterpret almost every aspect of
Islam - from its punishments to its proscriptions
- self-styled progressives have offered the West a
palatable alternative to traditional
interpretations of Islam.
The frequent
references to Islamic "reformations" and "Muslim
Martin Luthers" offers an insight into the West's
thinking about contemporary Muslim society. It
demonstrates a condescending approach to other
cultures, that assumes the universality of its own
historical model of separation of church and state
to attain modernity; suggesting that the route the
West has taken is the only way forward, and that
all other cultures, including Islam, will
eventually imitate it.
Recognizing an
inconsistency between Islamic teachings and the
contemporary secular values of the West, Muslim
liberals offer a radical re-interpretation of
Islam as the solution. However, while other
religions have, to their detriment, embraced
relativism and adapted accordingly, such a
phenomena is unknown to Islam. Muslims have
retained a firm belief both in the infallibility
and literal truth of their text. Islam does not
share the temporality of other faiths: the
exhortation of the prophet 1,400 years ago remains
equally valid today; and while Islam allows some
limited adaptation to culture and technology, what
was deemed immoral 1,400 years ago remains immoral
today.
Despite this, there remains the
optimistic belief that, given the opportunity,
Muslims will choose to free themselves from the
shackles of theology and embrace some vacuous
notion of "modernity". However, the much-heralded
Saudi elections demonstrate the fallacy of such
thinking.
Last week, elections were held
for municipal councils in Saudi Arabia. The
elections, broadly welcomed as baby-steps taken on
the road to democracy, attracted an amazing
response: in Riyadh alone, some 1,800 Saudis
registered as candidates. Many of these were
millionaires, many were seeking to trade on tribal
ties, and yet others were public figures well
known to the Saudi public. The expectation of both
Saudi liberals and many Western commentators was
that the election would validate claims of popular
support for liberalization.
However, when
votes were counted, it emerged that Saudis had
voted for people whose defining qualities were
their religious conservatism and the endorsement
of Saudi Arabia's religious establishment. Even in
Jeddah, the most liberal of Saudi cities and the
intellectual heartland of Saudi secularism, the
six candidates elected were the six candidates
endorsed by Islamic scholars - the so-called
"Golden List".
Election results across the
kingdom have shattered the myth of a Saudi nation
repressed by its clergy; anxious to throw off the
manacles of puritan Islam and adopt the nostrums
of the secular West. It also offers Western
cheerleaders for a democratic Middle East a clear
lesson: given the vote, Muslims will
overwhelmingly vote "yes" for Islam and "no" for
secularism and Western-style liberalism.
As a regular visitor to the Middle East,
it is hard not to feel the winds of change are
blowing; however, they are clearly not blowing in
the direction that the US and her allies have
intended. In Saudi Arabia, the war on Iraq and the
bellicose position taken by the US toward the
religious practices of the kingdom has fed an
already advanced Islamic revival. The West's open
support for self-styled "progressives" and
"reformers" has only bolstered the credibility of
their opposition. By way of example, whereas once
there was no purely Islamic satellite channel in
the kingdom, today there are two: one for adults,
and one for children.
The phenomena
evidenced in the Saudi elections will continue as
more Arab governments are cajoled or threatened
into making further democratic reforms.
Paradoxically, reforms that were meant to usher in
a democratic, secular and pro-Western Middle East
will lead to more religious governments
articulating a more independent foreign policy.
This should not necessarily be cause for
concern. Islamic scholars have been at the
forefront of opposing religious extremism; and
1,400 years of Islamic history shows a correlation
between the religiousness of the government and
its ability to embrace technology and advance
human learning. Indeed, the West is likely to be a
benefactor of the increased social, economic and
political stability that comes from representative
governments in the oil-rich Muslim world.
The war on Iraq has frequently been cast
as a test of our collective commitment to
democracy and freedom. As the Saudi elections
show, the real test is yet to come: can our belief
in the right of all people to self-determination
accommodate a Middle East that chooses the
absolutism and certainty of Islam over the
relativism and institutionalized atheism of
secularism?
Amir Butler is
executive director of the Australian Muslim Public
Affairs Committee (AMPAC). He can be contacted
at abutler@muslimaffairs.com.au
(Copyright 2005 Amir Butler)
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click here
if you are interested in
contributing. |
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