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President Obama's Remarks on Democracy & Middle East Peace:
Democracy and Human Rights are Essential
 Developing nations must root out the corruption that is an obstacle to progress - for opportunity cannot thrive where individuals are oppressed and business have to pay bribes. That's why we will support honest police and independent judges; civil society and a vibrant private sector.
These principles cannot be afterthoughts - democracy and human rights are essential to achieving each of the goals that I have discussed today. Because governments of the people and by the people are more likely to act in the broader interests of their own people, rather than the narrow interest of those in power.
True leadership will not be measured by the ability to muzzle dissent, or to intimidate and harass political opponents at home. The people of the world want change. They will not long tolerate those who are on the wrong side of history.
And I pledge that America will always stand with those who stand up for their dignity and their rights - for the student who seeks to learn; the voter who demands to be heard; the innocent who longs to be free; and the oppressed who yearns to be equal.
Democracy cannot be imposed on any nation from the outside. Each society must search for its own path, and no path is perfect. Each country will pursue a path rooted in the culture of its people, and - in the past - America has too often been selective in its promotion of democracy. But that does not weaken our commitment, it only reinforces it. There are basic principles that are universal; there are certain truths which are self evident - and the United States of America will never waiver in our efforts to stand up for the right of people everywhere to determine their own destiny.
We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel, and we continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.
The time has come to re-launch negotiations - without preconditions - that address the permanent-status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians; borders, refugees and Jerusalem.
The goal is clear: two states living side by side in peace and security
- a Jewish State of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a
viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that
ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realizes the potential of
the Palestinian people.
The
United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an
unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel
respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians.
Read full Speech here.
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Institute for Public Policy Research
Building Bridges, Not Walls -
Engaging with political Islamists in the Middle East and North Africa
 Our approach in this research project was to analyse the 'mainstream'
political Islamist movements in three countries in the Middle East: the
Party of Justice and Development (PJD) in Morocco, the Islamic Action
Front (IAF) in Jordan and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and to map
their existing policies on key issues. This report calls on western governments to:
- Rethink their political strategy for engaging with non-violent Islamist parties and movements across the Middle East and North Africa, and be more proactive in creating channels for serious and sustained dialogue with them. Without giving Islamists preferential treatment, there is scope for more consistently involving them in debate about broader relations between Europe, the US and the Middle East and North Africa alongside other non-governmental actors, including the region's secular opposition politicians.
- Engage with the political as well as the religious values of Islamist parties and movements. There must be recognition that a solid basis for engagement cannot be built without some attempt to find common political ground. Western policymakers should move away from their focus on 'testing' the democratic credentials of Islamist movements, and concentrate instead on discussion of the range of political, economic and social issues that concern these groups, many of which are shared by their western counterparts.
- Be more even-handed in condemning all human rights abuses in the Middle East and North Africa, including those perpetrated against Islamists by the region's authoritarian regimes. A visible change in approach here could go some way towards repairing the West's tarnished image in the region, and would counter the charge that the US, UK and other governments tend to turn a blind eye when human rights violations are committed by authoritarian governments.
- Display greater consistency in pressing authoritarian governments in the Middle East and North Africa to open up their political systems. Reform of undemocratic political structures in the region may well benefit Islamist parties and movements, and this will pose uncomfortable dilemmas for western governments. But an approach that seeks to ignore these political currents is neither morally nor strategically defensible.
Download Full Report
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Muslims find new Ramadan fast partners: Christians
By ERIC GORSKI | The Associated Press
 Ben Ries is among a small group of Christians who've joined well-known evangelical author and speaker Brian McLaren in observing a Ramadan fast, opening a new chapter in interfaith relations between two traditions often at odds.
In announcing his Ramadan fast plans on his blog last month, McLaren wrote, "We are not doing so in order to become Muslims: we are deeply committed Christians. But as Christians, we want to come close to our Muslim neighbors and to share this important part of life with them." The goal is to join Muslims in the observance as "a God-honoring expression of peace, fellowship and neighborliness," he wrote.
"Some Christians in the U.S. are becoming more anti-Muslim," he said in an interview. "They are retrenching in a fearful, angry posture. Other Christians are saying now, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, we have to recommit ourselves to the work of peacemaking like never before. That has been my response."
Full Article |
Tunisia: The life of others
By Kristina Kausch
Beyond Tunisia's postcard image, the country is a special case among the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) due to its combination of impressive socio-economic development on the one hand and a high level of political repression on the other.
 Unlike most of its semi-authoritarian neighbours, which have - under increasing domestic and international pressures for democratisation - embarked on a (however limited) path of political reform, Tunisia shows no signs of opening up politically. Indeed, the opposite is true. Whilst in countries like Morocco, Jordan and Egypt openly violent repression belongs largely in the past, behind the façade Tunisia remains an old-style dictatorship built around one man, whose rule is held up by an openly repressive police state with few aspirations to subtlety.
This paper by Kristina Kausch outlines a number of key obstacles to free association in the everyday practice of Tunisian civic rights activism. These include the extra-legal position of the majority of political civil society; the regime's policy of systematic surveillance and harassment of activists and opposition; the tight governmental control over the media and telecommunication channels; and the regime's persistent policy of repression towards any political actors with an Islamist leaning.
Download Full Report |
What is New about Al-Qaradawi's Jihad
By Rached Ghannouchi | Rethinking Jihad Conference
 The importance of this conference is due to its focus on the most critical concept in contemporary Islamic thought- that of Jihad, which occupies an important position in the edifice of Islam. Jihad is "the summit of Islam and its pinnacle" according to the hadith, and is the subject of widely divergent views and stances from within and outside Islam, views which have serious consequences for international relations, in view of Islam's growing role internationally.
Those views, moreover, have an effect on relations between Muslims themselves, with their governments, and with non-Muslims, in view of the awakening witnessed across the Muslim world, both at the level of faith and the level of practice. This has led to a greater connection between Islam as a religion (creed, rituals, morals) and an ideology of great influence on the thought and behaviour of Muslims, socially and politically, or what is known as "political Islam", in which jihad occupies a central position in one way or another.
Al-Qaradawi has developed a principal theory in contemporary Islam, from which all his views and stances emanate, and to which he tirelessly calls, widening its appeal and marginalising its opponents - that is the principle of Islamic Wasatiyya or moderation. This was inspired by the verse in the second chapter of the Quran, "And thus we made you into a middle (wasat) nation". Starting from this wasati viewpoint, he presents all his ijtihads in all aspects of Islamic thought, including his ijtihad on the question of jihad, as revealed in his latest book "The Fiqh of Jihad: a comparative study of its rulings and philosophy in light of the Quran and Sunnah". This study was described by its author as one which "took several years of continuous work, and occupied his thought for decades".
No Islamic concept has been the target of a continuous flow of attacks, and has brought a constant flow of attacks to Islam and Muslims, as much as that of jihad. It has fallen into the two extremes of exaggeration and laxity. The latter is promoted by a group that wants to abolish jihad from the life of the ummah, spreading the spirit of submission and surrender, under the guise of various calls such as tolerance and peace, described by the author as "agents of colonialism whose hostility to jihad is such that it has gone as far as creating groups which fabricated an Islam without jihad, and devoted themselves to promoting it, such as Bahais and Qadianis".
At the other extreme, there is another group that makes of the concept of jihad a raging war it wages against the whole world, taking the natural state of things in relation to non-Muslims to be that of war, and regarding all people as enemies of Muslims, as long as they are not Muslim".
Full Paper
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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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