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Demanding Arab democracy
 The demand for democracy in the greater Middle East may currently be weak. But, notes analyst Mark Katz, "If and when the demand for democratization does grow in the Middle East, American support will also be crucial for transforming it into actual democracy."
Activists voiced local demands for democracy at last week's fifth Forum for the Future in Abu Dhabi, co-chaired by the United Arab Emirates and Japan. Participants affirmed their commitment to develop the Forum's mechanisms and to support Democracy Assistance Dialogue efforts for the promotion of government-civil society dialogue and cooperation.
The event also prompted debate about the initiative's achievements and the role of external agencies. Though much diluted from the original plans for a Greater Middle East Initiative, the forum has nevertheless provided platforms for a vibrant dialogue between governments and civil societies, argues Turkish commentator Sylvia Tiryaki.
Tunisian democracy activist Slaheddine Jourchi is less impressed. "Arab governments believe that their non-governmental organizations are influenced by the West, while the NGOs believe that the West is too accommodating toward their governments," said Jourchi.
The forum is not the only recent pro-democracy development. A "Foundation for the Future," set up in March to assist Arab civil society, has raised US$25 million. The foundation has begun making grants , mostly to relatively 'safe' civil society projects, some of which appear to be GONGOs or at least programs unlikely to offend local regimes. Most of the donors are G8 states, plus the EU and Jordan.
In a sign of the Kremlin's growing assertiveness in the region, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister used the occasion of the forum to insist that political reforms not be imposed on countries. "Each state should implement democratic principles in its own way and no pressure should be put on them."
Full Article
Foundation for the Future Website
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One Indonesian shares women's rights in Islamic schools
In her boarding schools, Lily Munir teaches women and children that their religion supports gender equality.
By David Montero | The Christian Science Monitor
 It's a simple but important way Munir, who since 2002 has run the Center for Pesantren and Democracy Studies in Jakarta, is challenging traditional views on gender in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country.
In so doing, she is reclaiming what she sees as the Koran's intended but lost message. Where many in the West see a book of intolerance, Munir sees a text whose basic demand is harmony among all faiths. Where radical Islamists see a call to arms, she sees a blueprint for peace.
And instead of looking at Koranic verses that justify gender disparities, Munir sees a mandate for all men to work for the empowerment of women. "[My parents] were very progressive, and very gender-sensitive," she says. "My mother was the first woman judge in Indonesia. That was thanks to my father, who practiced the teaching of the Koran: that men should ... be empowering women."
Alongside issues of gender, Munir's organization also helps pesantrens incorporate discussion of pluralism, democracy, and tolerance into religious curricula. Her approach is novel not only for what she teaches, but because she eschews the rote learning often employed in religious schools.
"I tell my students: Don't just memorize. Let's discuss. Why do you think it is important? And that's how the Koran suggests you should invite people to Islam, not by force, not by threatening," she says, quoting in Arabic, "Invite people into the way of God, with wisdom."
And that tolerance starts with empowered mothers educating their children, says Yonita Lydia, a mother of three who attended Munir's workshop.
"We have to raise a good generation. In the Koran it talks about tolerance. Islam is tolerance," she says, pointing to a verse in a Koran cradled in her lap: "Here, it says: 'Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.' "
Full Article
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The "Obsession" film
Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in America?
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
 We need to explore the meaning of this question, which was raised - and answered - by Colin Powell in a recent major interview: "The correct answer is, he [Obama] is not a Muslim. He's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is: 'What if he is?' Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That's not America."
Of course Colin Powell is only partly right. Fear and even hatred of Islam is a part of the actual America at this moment of our history. It is also true that in part of America there is a real effort of Muslims, Jews, and Christians to learn from each other, make peace with each other -and beyond.
The atmosphere of fear and hatred toward Islam has actually increased in the US during the last few years. Why? Partly because it has been deliberately stimulated. But partly because of what psychologists call "cognitive dissonance." Most people who do something that runs against ordinary rules of decent behavior want to believe there is some extremely important reason to do it. So if you spend almost a trillion dollars and send thousands of Americans to their deaths and thousands more to lose their legs, arms, eyes, genitals, minds, and souls - all in order to kill Muslims who are not terrorists, do not have weapons of mass destruction, and are citizens of a weak and defenseless nation - it becomes imperative to see Muslims and Islam - without distinctions-as extremely dangerous. Not quite human. Not real Americans. Not one more thread in the lovely multi-colored fabric of American democracy.
And of course the fear and rage had a root in the actions of a small number of terrorists who did claim Islam as their justification, even though the mainstream organizations and leaders of Islam and the vast majority of Muslims in the world condemned the terrorist attack.
But this disorganized fear and rage would have remained disorganized, inchoate, ineffective, if some organizations had not whipped it up.
Enter a DVD called "Obsession," which a month ago was mailed as a free embedded ad to the readers of more than a dozen major newspapers. At the time I briefly remarked upon its distortions and promised you a more through assessment. Then big chunks of the American and world economy fell apart, and my attention turned to what our traditions teach about a flourishing abundance - and its choke-off.
And just as anti-Jewish rage in the 1930s was a danger not only to Jews but also to all who affirmed a free democracy and sought to reempower the poor and the middle class, so widespread rage against Muslims today would be a danger not only to Muslims.
"Obsession" is an attempt to make not a band of terrorists but all Islam the enemy. Bad enough in itself; even worse that it was deliberately sent to millions of homes through newspapers in the major "swing states" of presidential politics. It was an attempt to transform religious fear and ignorance into religious hatred, and hatred into an election tool.
The film never shows the millions of Muslims, leaders and grass-roots, who spoke their grief and horror at the World Trade Center murders. It does not show the meetings of Muslim scholars and teachers who issued fatwas (decrees) against killing civilians, or the work of Muslim organizations that not only called for dialogue but took part in it and patiently sent teachers to explain Islam to Jews and Christians. It does not show the work of Muslim charities trying to meet the needs of desperately poor families, of sick children, in countries as far-flung as Pakistan and Palestine.
When the film does show Muslims at prayer, it delivers the message that Muslims who become murderers are the same as those who pray - rather than counterposing the hundreds of millions who pray with the hundreds who kill.
On the other side of the same coin, the film ignores violence perpetrated in the names of religious and nationalist ideals when they are committed by Jews, Christians, Hindus, Communists, patriotic Americans. I do not mean only such acts as blowing up the Federal building in Oklahoma City or killing 29 Muslims prostrate in prayer in the Tomb of Abraham or murdering hundreds of Irish folk because they espouse one wrong flavor or another of Christianity.
I mean also this: Killing thousands of civilians is mass murder whether it is done by turning a truck or a plane with no national flag upon it into a bomb ("terrorism"), or dropping bombs from airplanes with a national flag proudly painted on them ("war"). For an American president who proclaims himself a born-again Christian and depends on the political heft of millions of born-again Christians to kill at least 300,000 Iraqis smells to me as much of religious terrorism as does the murder of 3,000 people in the World Trade Center by a band that proclaimed itself devout Muslims.
What to do?
Speak out against the obsessive fear of Islam. Speak out to highlight the most important line in Colin Powell's interview. Speak out to political candidates, urging them to speak in all sorts of houses of worship if they speak in any. Speak out to the publishers of the newspapers that carried "Obsession" as an ad, asking them whether a DVD about the "International Jewish Conspiracy" would have found so quick acceptance, no matter how much the money offered their shrinking bank accounts. Speak out to their editors and columnists as well, asking them to critically analyze the film. Since the producers of "Obsession" have announced a follow-up film called "Relentless," be proactive in addressing the future as well as the past.
Above all, do not leave the defense of Islam's dignity and honor to Muslims alone. Christians and Jews must make clear that their own celebration of the One affirms the diversity that alone can express the Infinite. (For a multireligious effort to address "Obsession," see the work of "Hate Hurts America" at http://www.obsessionwithhate.com .)
And listen - to the real sorrows and angers of different communities in the world, Arab and Muslim and Hispanic and African and Mountain White in the American West and Appalachia. Listen with the ears of our hearts before responding, and then respond. Through action.
The speaking out and the listening, even beyond our concern with truth, must flow from our concern for love. For the love that all our traditions teach: love your neighbor as yourself. For the deep and loving understanding that the Quran teaches: God brought into the world different cultures and communities not for us to hate and despise each other but to lovingly know and deeply experience each other in our diversity.
Full Article
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Keeping Friends in the Muslim World
It is not about the feel-good factor
By Jim Sciutto
 Today, a remarkable variety of Muslims believe in a grand Western conspiracy against Islam, led by America and bent on punishing Muslims for Sept. 11, 2001. For them, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most pointed examples. Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and America's continuing relationships with Middle Eastern dictatorships are also cited as evidence. Increase in Islamic fundamentalism is an enormous problem, but for many Muslims, it is American policies, not religious beliefs, that drive their anger.
In Egypt, it's Gameela Ismail, the wife of jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour. The Bush administration encouraged her husband to challenge President Hosni Mubarak in presidential elections in 2005-Egypt's first multicandidate presidential election in decades-but has barely protested since Mubarak sent him to jail soon after. For three years, she's rallied for his release, with no help, she says, from U.S. officials.
In Iraq, it's the trauma surgeon who welcomed the U.S. military with real hope. But after five years of piecing together the war's victims, he now blames America for failing to deliver the type of country it promised him. At times, he even suspected that the U.S. planned the violence to justify a long-term military presence. The success of the surge has tempered that suspicion. But to him, the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis has been too high a price for his country to pay.
In Iran, it's the pro-democracy student leader, Babak Zamanian, who risks his life fighting for American-style freedom in Iran but wants no American help. In fact, he says the U.S. is hurting his cause by threatening war, which he believes strengthens Iran's hard-liners.
Oddly, that sense of profound disappointment offers some reason for hope. These are people we can talk to, people we can win back.
Late last month, 34 American leaders from government, business and academia signed a report calling for a new kind of engagement with the Muslim world. Called "Changing Course," the report recommends more diplomatic engagement, even with Iran and other adversaries, economic investment in Muslim countries to create jobs for alienated youth, the renunciation of torture and a new commitment to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
But, why should we care?
This is not about a feel-good factor. It's about advancing U.S. interests. Many of our most important goals in the region-from keeping young Muslims from joining extremist groups, to promoting political reform, to fighting the Taliban in Pakistan-are impossible without local support. While there are some in the Muslim world who will never be our friends and for whom military force is necessary-like the captured Al Qaeda fighters I have met-the majority of Muslims are not fundamentalists but remain convinced of America's bad intentions.
They could be our friends, but today see us as a disappointment and a threat.
Full Article
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Ibn Rushd Prize for Freedom of Thought 2008.
Ibn Rushd Fund awards Mohammed Abed al-Jabri
 BERLIN - This year the Ibn Rushd Fund awards its prize to the great Moroccan Philosopher Mohammed Abed al-Jabri, one of the most brilliant thinkers of the modern Arab world. The prize was announced to be awarded to an "Arab author who produced a study analysing the failure of Arab enlightenment."
Mohammed Abed al-Jabri is a lecturer in Philosophy and Islamic Thought at the University of Mohammed V in Rabat. Earlier in his career he was a dedicated teacher, school inspector and headmaster in Moroccan schools. He has also published educational books and was editor at several newspapers. As for his work in the political domain, al-Jabri's involvement in the opposition movement led to his arrest several times.
The Ibn Rushd Fund, named after the philosopher Ibn Rushd/Averroes (1126-1198), supports freedom of speech and democracy in the Arab world by annually awarding the Ibn Rushd Prize. The focus of the theme varies every year: So far, the prizes covered the fields of journalism, women's rights, criticism, politics, philosophy, literature, reform of Islam, human rights and film. This will be the tenth time the Ibn Rushd Prize is awarded.
Within 50 years al-Jabri enriched the Arabic library with several distinguished theses, scholarly works and studies on new interpretations of the Arab cultural heritage as the first necessary steps towards cultural development. Al-Jabri believes that the past must be re-examined and assimilated into the present within a deeper understanding of world culture.
In this context it should be pointed out that al-Jabri has intensively dealt with Ibn Rushd (Averroes) by supervising the publishing and providing the introduction and commentaries for critical editions of numerous original manuscripts (excluding Ibn Rushd's commentary works on Aristotle). Ad-Daruri fi s-siyasa (The Essentials in Politics), in which Ibn Rushd summarizes and comments on Aristotle's' Politica, has survived only in its Hebrew translation. Together with a scholar colleague, al-Jabri translated it back into Arabic and took care to bring it over into the idiom and linguistic style contemporary to Ibn Rushd.
Full Article
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By Rev. Oliver Thomas
 The Bible is pretty clear about how people should live their lives. And in the U.S., faith-driven people no doubt identify more with the good book's heroes than its villains. Yet it's fair to ask, is this country living up to God's expectations?
When the last vote is tallied and the last yard sign pulled down, Democrats and Republicans must go back to being "one nation under God." That's especially important when we're beset by economic woes at home and a two-front war abroad.
My father, who was a Baptist deacon as well as a World War II veteran, was such a patriot. Pop taught me that true patriotism is not a contest to see who can fly the biggest flag. True patriotism exists where citizens love their country enough to hold it accountable. That means working to make certain that the president we have elected and the government we have created live up to the words of our creeds and the dreams of our poets and prophets.
An imperfect union
Don't get me wrong. The U.S. is a great nation. She has pushed the bounds of science and technology and brought prosperity to the masses, creating the world's largest middle class. She has defeated some of the world's vilest villains and brought freedom and the rule of law to the farthest reaches of the planet. But she is not perfect. She has toppled democratically elected governments in favor of friendly dictators and firebombed civilians. She has consumed resources at a dangerous pace and ravaged the environment in the process. She has allowed her cities to fester and her family farms to wither and die. And, she has gone from a progressive tax structure, that was built upon the biblical premise that to whom much is given much is required, to one that provides massive tax relief to the people who need it least the rich.
The faith community has our work cut out for us if America is to become the "city upon a hill" envisioned by some of our greatest leaders. And if self-awareness is the beginning of wisdom, perhaps we should start by reading the Bible with different eyes. Let's lose the hubris. Maybe we're not ancient Israel. Maybe we're Rome.
Full Article
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The International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy invites you to a panel discussion on;
Public Opinion and Democracy:
What Africans, Asians, and Arabs Think
with:
 Yun-han Chu, Andrew Nathan, Mark Tessler, Larry Diamond, and Marc F. Plattner
to celebrate the publication of
How People View Democracy
A Journal of Democracy book edited by Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner published in September 2008 by the Johns Hopkins University Press
Friday, November 14, 2008
12:00 noon-2:00 p.m.
(Lunch served 12:00-12:30 pm)
1025 F Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20004
RSVP (acceptances only) with name and affiliation by Wednesday, November 12
by email to forum@ned.org
With the blossoming of survey-based public-opinion research on attitudes and values regarding democracy, scholars have begun to be able to compare emerging democracies within each region on such vital dimensions as support for democracy, satisfaction with the performance of democracy, confidence in the future of democracy, and trust in democratic institutions. New efforts to compile "regional barometers" of opinion through the regular and systematic posing of standardized questions across a number of countries have generated a vast harvest of comparative data that reveal how citizens view the principles and institutions of democracy. This event will feature representatives from several of these regional barometers: Yun-han Chu, who directs the Asian Barometer; Mark Tessler, who directs the Arab Barometer; Larry Diamond, who will represent the Afrobarometer; and Andrew Nathan, who, along with Larry Diamond, Yun-han Chu, and Doh Chull Shin, edited How East Asians View Democracy.
Yun-han Chu is distinguished research fellow of the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and director of the Asian Barometer.
Andrew Nathan is Class of 1919 Professor and department chair of political science at Columbia University. His latest book is How East Asians View Democracy, co-edited with Yun-han Chu, Larry Diamond, and Doh Chull Shin.
Mark Tessler is Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and director of the Arab Barometer.
Larry Diamond is coeditor of the Journal of Democracy and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. His most recent book is The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World.
Marc F. Plattner is coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, codirector of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, and vice-president at the National Endowment for Democracy. His latest book is Democracy without Borders? Global Challenges to Liberal Democracy.
RSVP here
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UN Democracy Fund -
Call for proposals
 The United Nations Democracy Fund is inviting funding proposals from civil society organizations for projects that promote democracy.
UNDEF funds projects that "strengthen the voice of civil society and ensure the participation of all groups in democratic processes." Proposals should address at least one of the following thematic categories:
* democratic dialogue and support for constitutional processes;
* civil society empowerment, including the empowerment of women;
* civic education and voter registration;
* citizen's access to information;
* participation rights and the rule of law in support of civil society;
* transparency and integrity.
Priority is given to projects that "enhance inclusiveness and gender equality." Funding will range from US $50,000 to US $500,000. Project proposals should be submitted on-line between 10 November 2007 and 31 December 2008 at the UNDEF web site.
Only on-line applications in either English or French will be accepted. The application procedure is described in the Project Proposal Guidelines.
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Dear Members, Friends, and Supporters of CSID:
RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP OR DONATION TODAY
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To become a member of CSID, please click here. To make a donation, please click here. Your membership fees and donation allow CSID to continue its mission of promoting democracy in the Muslim world and educating Americans - and American policy makers - about Islam and the Muslim world, and therefore contribute to peace, human rights, and harmony in the world. With our best wishes and regards,
Sincerely,
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Radwan A. Masmoudi
President
Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy |
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