As Professor Rashid Khalidi stepped to the podium to give the keynote address at yesterday's "Democratizing the Middle East" conference, he commented that the striking results of the recent election in Palestine could not have come at a more appropriate time.
Khalidi was the opening speaker for The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies' conference, which began yesterday afternoon.
Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and the Director of the Middle East Institute and School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
In addition to Palestine's election, in which radical faction Hamas trumped the more moderate Fatah party's 40-year reign in Palestinian politics, Khalidi also highlighted the success of Kuwait's parliament, which recently democratically determined the successor to King Emir Saad's monarchic reign.
Khalidi believes both show evidence of an active democratic process in the region.
He went on to argue that this democratic progress, though slow, is no recent phenomenon.
He set out to counter the popular US impression that the Middle East has no history of democracy and to debunk the myth that Islam is by nature "particularly anti-democratic."
While he acknowledged the "exceedingly long trend of absolutist states" in the Middle East, Khalidi stressed that the region is one of the oldest sites of human inhabitation. He said that it has been in the process of social and political development for thousands of years.
The trend of absolutism has been propagated by external - and largely Western - interference, as well as almost constant warfare, Khalidi said.
Throughout the colonial period, he alleged, Western powers did not support democracy in the Middle East, but instead supported autocratic rulers through whom the West could dominate the political climate.
"It is a contradiction in terms to impose democracy," Khalidi said, criticizing the outside influence of contemporary western nations in their "supposed" promotion of democracy.
He noted that the Ottoman Empire had a working constitution before Russia, Spain or Portugal. He also argued that Republic of Lebanon has arguably survived greater challenges in the last few decades than the United States has ever faced.
In spite of his criticism, Khalidi said that the West has influenced the Middle East in many beneficial ways. He cited the liberal ideals of 17th century Europe and the Western push for greater education and commercial development as examples.
"Democrats in the Middle East are many," and homegrown democratic traditions have a long history, Khalidi said. Accordingly, for America to describe itself as the bearer of democracy is an arrogant as well as ineffective attitude, he asserted.
Khalidi also attributed undemocratic impressions of the Middle East to "illiberal trends in Islamic political movements."
He said he believes that there was a true "Islamic modernist synthesis" - progress towards reconciliation between traditional Islam and Western liberal values - during the years following World War One in places like republican Turkey. The influence of a "witches' brew" of radical Islam centered around Saudi Arabia has slowed this progress and synthesis of democratic ideas, he said.
According to Khalidi, this particularly radical Wahhabi sect of Islam, along with various other offshoot groups, found fertile ground in Saudi Arabia. There, they formed alliances with the Saudi royal family.
In the "hellish cauldron of the Afghan war," these extremist movements, some of the most intolerant in the entire history of Islam, have now distorted perceptions of the religion world-wide, he said.
According to Khalidi, many people around the world see only this "parodic, cartoon version" of Islam. They conclude that the religion as a whole is incompatible with liberalism - an assumption Khalidi finds to be untrue.
Ultimately, Khalidi said, true democracy can only come from sources within a country. If support from within is present, he said, other impediments can be overcome.
In terms of external influence, Khalidi said that US promotion of democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan loses much of its force when the US cooperates with undemocratic regimes in countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
"How we as Americans behave is more influential than any statement we make, or what an individual says. People are observant," he said.
Stephen Bosworth, Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, introduced Khalidi to the full Cabot Intercultural Center.
The Fares' Center's conference continues tomorrow from 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Cabot Intercultural Center.
