Dear CSID Friends, Members, and Subscribers:
For the past 12 years, CSID has been at the forefront of two major struggles: supporting and encouraging freedom, human rights, and democracy in the Arab and Muslim Worlds, and educating the American people about Islam, Islamic cultures and civilizations, and Muslims. These two struggles have never been as critical as they are today, but CSID cannot succeed without your support.
We need to raise at least $55,000 before the end of November, to support our efforts and activities in the US and in the Muslim World. We're running behind right now, but we can get there if more first-time donors begin pitching in and if current and previous members and supporters renew their support. If you appreciate what we do and want to see it continue, please support CSID today.
Click here to join or renew as a member.
(CSID is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit. EIN: 52-2167254)
You can also donate by check, made payable to: CSID, 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 601, Washington, DC, 20036
Sincerely,
Radwan A. Masmoudi Asma Afsaruddin
President Chair of the Board
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1,000 Arab Scholars, Leaders, and Politicians Sign:
The Casablanca Call for Democracy and Human Rights
 On Oct. 22-23, 2010, CSID organized, in partnership with the Center for Studies and Research in Humanities (MADA), a regional conference on "The Future of Democracy and Human Rights in the Arab World" in Casablanca, Morocco. The choice of the theme proved very important, and timely. Over 50 leading politicians, scholars, and activists participated in the conference from 16 Arab countries. During the conference, the participants decided to issue a new call to urge Arab governments, political parties, civil society, and all concerned citizens to work together and intensify their efforts for real and genuine democracy in their countries.
After the Conference, CSID publicized the Casablanca Call on its website and urged other Arab leaders, politicians, scholars, and activists to sign the Call. Within three weeks, CSID collected over 1,000 signatures from Arab leaders and politicians, from various political groups - both secularists and Islamists - as well as religious scholars and leaders. The Casablanca Call is a call to unite all Arab democrats behind a common agenda and platform. CSID and its local partners hope to collect 2,000 signatures from leading Arab intellectuals and political leaders before we release it to the press, hopefully by early December.
The purpose of the Casablanca Call is:
- To show that all political parties and movements in the Arab World, including Secularists and Islamists, are in agreement that democracy is a priority for their societies,
- To demonstrate that they can work together to define a common agenda and platform for implementing real and genuine political reforms,
- To urge their governments to work with political parties and with civil society organizations on the implementation of these reforms.
Arab intellectuals, leaders, politicians, and activists are urged to sign the Casablanca Appeal, as soon as possible.
Read the Casablanca Call for Democracy and Human Rights (in English)
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CSID Regional Conference:
The Future of Democracy and Human Rights in the Arab World
 CSID organized, in partnership with the Moroccan Centre MADA, a conference on "The Future of Democracy and Human Rights in the Arab World" on Oct. 22-23, 2010 in Casablanca, Morocco. The choice of the theme proved both important and timely. In recent years, many observers believe that promoting democracy is no longer a priority for the U.S. administration. Others believe that the movement for democracy is part of an external agenda, that lacks depth and support inside the countries of the MENA region. This initiative is a tangible proof of the degree of mobilization among the democratic forces, it demonstrates that the issue of democracy is always present, regardless of the political situation.
The strength of the Casablanca conference was that it could bring together enough diverse profiles, academia, civil society activists, politicians, women and men, secular and moderate Islamists, all rallied to the cause of democracy. The mere fact of bringing these people, who accept each other in their diversity testifies to the enormous work accumulated by the democrats and the progress registered in the mentality. Indeed, a decade ago; gathering similar profiles was much closer to dreams than to reality.
 Another aspect of the strength of this conference; it was held just weeks before parliamentary elections in two Arab countries engaged in the process of reforms, Egypt and Jordan. Both countries had experienced some reforms in the last decade. Unfortunately, in recent years, these reforms are slowing down, and there was even some significant rolling back, in the field of human rights and freedom of the press. In Egypt, a few weeks before the election, prosecutions and arrests continue among opposition activists, and in Jordan, the electoral law and the distribution of electoral districts were revised in ways that undermine the principles of transparency and neutrality.
Almost all Arab countries have experienced setbacks during the last four years and very serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including unfair arrests, systematic torture, lack of respect for the independence of the judiciary, and tighter media controls.
 This challenges us as democrats. It confronts us with our responsibilities, on an equal footing with decision makers and actors from political parties. We need a lot of vigilance to safeguard the democratic gains and keep up the mobilization among the driving forces of our country to avoid tensions and to ensure stability and welfare in our societies.
Read full report on the Casablanca Conference
Read the Papers presented at the Conference (in Arabic).
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President Obama Praises Indonesian Democracy
Obama Links Development, Democracy, and Religious Faith
In a major speech at the University of Indonesia, in Jakarta, President Obama emphasized that development, democracy, and religious faith are linked together, and suggested that Indonesia is a good example for other Muslim countries to follow. In what appears to be a shift in his administration's foreign policy, President Obama suggested that the United States will always support freedom and democracy and the right of people to govern themselves and to choose and change their government through peaceful means. Here are some relevant quotes from the speech.
 In the years since then, Indonesia has charted its own course through an extraordinary democratic transformation - from the rule of an iron fist to the rule of the people. In recent years, the world has watched with hope and admiration as Indonesians embraced the peaceful transfer of power and the direct election of leaders. And just as your democracy is symbolized by your elected President and legislature, your democracy is sustained and fortified by its checks and balances: a dynamic civil society; political parties and unions; a vibrant media and engaged citizens who have ensured that - in Indonesia - there will be no turning back from democracy.
Today, we sometimes hear that democracy stands in the way of economic progress. This is not a new argument. Particularly in times of change and economic uncertainty, some will say that it is easier to take a shortcut to development by trading away the right of human beings for the power of the state. But that's not what I saw on my trip to India, and that is not what I see here in Indonesia. Your achievements demonstrate that democracy and development reinforce one another.
Of course, democracy is messy. Not everyone likes the results of every election. You go through your ups and downs. But the journey is worthwhile, and it goes beyond casting a ballot. It takes strong institutions to check the power - the concentration of power. It takes open markets to allow individuals to thrive. It takes a free press and an independent justice system to root out abuses and excess, and to insist on accountability. It takes open society and active citizens to reject inequality and injustice.
The nations of Southeast Asia must have the right to determine their own destiny, and the United States will strongly support that right. But the people of Southeast Asia must have the right to determine their own destiny as well. And that's why we condemned elections in Burma recently that were neither free nor fair. That is why we are supporting your vibrant civil society in working with counterparts across this region. Because there's no reason why respect for human rights should stop at the border of any country.
Hand in hand, that is what development and democracy are about - the notion that certain values are universal. Prosperity without freedom is just another form of poverty. Because there are aspirations that human beings share - the liberty of knowing that your leader is accountable to you, and that you won't be locked up for disagreeing with them; the opportunity to get an education and to be able to work with dignity; the freedom to practice your faith without fear or restriction. Those are universal values that must be observed everywhere.
Read Full Speech Back to top |
Egypt Rebuffs U.S. Call for Foreign Monitors at Elections
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Egypt said Thursday that it was dismayed by Washington's call for foreign monitors to observe the country's coming parliamentary elections, describing it as meddling in its internal affairs. A statement released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry said that the United States was acting like an "overseer" and that it was not respecting Egypt's sovereignty."It seems that the U.S. insists on not respecting the privacy of the Egyptian society and making statements that incense Egypt's nationalism," the statement said.Elections in Egypt are routinely marred by fraud, but the authorities have pledged, as in past years, that the Nov. 28 vote will be fair.Egypt has rejected calls for international monitors, insisting that local groups could do the job. In response to the Egyptian criticism, the American ambassador, Margaret Scobey, said the United States welcomed Egypt's stated commitment to open and free elections, "including facilitating domestic monitoring by civil society groups.""In addition, an open electoral process would include a credible and impartial mechanism for reviewing election-related complaints, a domestic election observation effort according to international standards, and the presence of international observers," she said in a statement.In Washington, the State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, told reporters that the election would be watched very closely to ensure that it met Egypt's requirements and international standards.
Read Full Article
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How to win power in Egypt
By Ayman Mohyeldin | Al Jazeera English
 | | Egypt gears up for a Parliamentary vote on Nov. 28 that will be neither free nor fair |
Sure, the democratic processes in Egypt are there, well written on paper for all to see. Yes, pluralism exists in the political parties. Indeed, civil society is robust, holding workshops to train cadres of election monitors and observers. True, the media has been emboldened to be more daring in issue-driven coverage of the country.
So what is missing in Egypt's democracy or, as it is often called, "sham-ocracy"? The short answer is: belief. Nobody in Egypt believes they can make a difference, and more importantly no one in Egypt is entitled to believe they can make a difference.
Everyone believes it is someone else's responsibility rather than his or her own. Neither the individual voters, nor election monitors, opposition papers or political parties believe they can make a difference. That lack of belief stems from the systematic and deliberate marginalisation of a people for nearly half a century.
There are three loose groupings in Egypt: the guns, the banks and the people. Control any two out of the three and you can control the country. The question is, which two are the most important to control? You can learn a little from each of Egypt's presidents, what each opted to control during their terms in office.
Mubarak appeased the military by filling its pockets with billions of dollars of American aid, and he allowed it to become a business enterprise in its own right. With the backing of the military, he accelerated the privatisation of Egypt and introduced even bigger businesses to the country. He opened Egypt to greater foreign investment and trade and by extension greater foreign control.
Today, the future of Egypt is being fought behind the scenes over which two of these three groups need to be controlled. But none of the leading major forces in Egypt can categorically say they control two out of the three.
ElBaradei pro-democratic calls would certainly be better received by businesses which have been quiet about their support for him, but it is believed he has the backing of some wealthy Egyptians who are watching what he can do on street level.
Read Full Article
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Volunteers go hi-tech to map Egypt election irregularities
President Hosni Mubarak's regime has rejected US calls to allow foreign observers at Egypt elections this weekend. But volunteers, armed with innovative software, are undeterred.
By Kristen Chick | The Christian Science Monitor
 | | Student demostration in Cairo |
On the eve of Egypt's parliamentary elections this weekend, President Hosni Mubarak's regime has further tightened its control of the process as the country braces for a succession battle as early as next year.Over the weekend, the government arrested more than 200 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, which had already seen hundreds imprisoned. It has rejected US calls for international election monitors, and in recent weeks has cracked down on independent news broadcasts that could have brought greater transparency.
All this has opposition figures and independent analysts predicting that the Nov. 28 election - held to decide the 518 members of Egypt's lower house of parliament - will be even less free and fair than the previous one, in 2005."Unfortunately most of the indications are very terrible, very negative, very worrying, especially the fight which has been launched against the independent media," says Bahey el-Din Hassan, director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.While that bodes ill for Mr. Mubarak's promise that the election will be clean, a group of bloggers and activists are using the Internet, cellphones, and citizen engagement to create a monitoring process they predict will expose government misbehavior.How Twitter could tweak the election sceneThe website U-Shahid.org, which means "you are a witness," will plot reports of election irregularities on an interactive map of Egypt. Citizens can submit reports via text message, Twitter, or e-mail, along with photo or video verification. The effort's organizers hope it will push regular citizens toward political participation."We think it's a new tool for election monitoring that will attract more people to participate," says Esraa Abdel Fattah, a project organizer and activist who was arrested after she used a social-networking site to help organize a national strike in 2008. "We want them to feel there is something happening in Egypt. They should participate and they should see there is something illegal going on. This election is window dressing to say to the world that we have elections and democracy in Egypt. But we have no democracy. It's fake.""We have to fight," he says. "We're spreading the feeling that we can do something. Not for the present, but maybe for my son's future. The thing that is pushing me is to prepare the platform for my son. Because my father didn't do it for me."
Read Full Article
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Tunisia, our supposedly stable 'friend'
The west's search for Arab allies should not be at the cost of support for political freedom within those countries
By Rachel Linn | The Guardian
 | | President Ben Ali of Tunisia |
Since independence in 1956, Tunisia has been ruled by one party and two presidents - Habib Bourguiba and, since 1987, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. Though political rights have supposedly expanded in this time, Tunisians' ability to actually exercise them effectively has been eliminated.
Today, foreign or domestic journalists who publish material that is seen as critical of the government quickly find themselves unable to work in the country. Similarly, Tunisians who join unapproved movements of any political shading are liable to find themselves followed by police and quietly dismissed from their job, while their family is harassed and they are perhaps thrown into jail or, worse, tortured.
But that does not mean this surface-level "stability" runs very deep. Most Tunisians I spoke to expressed real apprehension about the future. Though Tunisia's GDP grew steadily between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s, growth has slowed in recent years and unemployment has risen sharply. Economists suggest the actual (unpublished) rate of unemployment is around 25%, and possibly as high as 40% in the critical 18-25 age group.
It is not as if there are no democrats for the west to partner with in Tunisia. Widely respected individuals with a commitment to democracy do exist, and their support seems to be growing at the margins where the state has not yet learned how to effectively repress it. Chebbi, for instance, says public sympathy for the PDP has widened markedly since the mid-2000s when the party began using international satellite channels, Facebook and other new media sources to disseminate its messages.
Chebbi told me: "We are not asking international observers to act in our place. We are the actors, but we are asking for political courage from them, to issue statements, anything that shows a clear support for democracy ...
"I can understand that foreign states are not activists, they have to manage their political and economic interests ... But in the case of Tunisia, what are the risks? ... We are not a big country, we do not have a radical culture of Islam. We are an educated people. I think the chances to have a modern democracy in a country like Tunisia are great."
However, I didn't have a satisfactory answer for Chebbi as to why his English-speaking friends in the US and European embassies could not be more forthcoming in supporting Tunisians' own democratic aims.
If we truly want to improve the brand image of the west in the Muslim world, we ought to consider seriously whether our engagement in such countries is genuinely supporting the best outcome for their populations. Supporting citizens' desire to pursue their own political aspirations - whatever those may be - by resolutely standing by political freedom would seem a basic start, and something I would argue is the only justifiable option in Tunisia.
Read Full Article
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Appeal from the Family of Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi
In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful November 15, 2010
Dear Friends, Assalamu Alaikum.
 | | Ebrahim Yazdi - The Oldest Political Prisoner in the World |
We appeal to you to help free our father and your brother in Islam, Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi. Once again he has been detained by the Iranian authorities, he is under great pressure and his health has become a serious concern.
The oldest of imprisoned dissidents,Ebrahim Yazdi was arrested on October 1, 2010 along with several others as they were in the midst of prayers in a private house in the city of Isfahan. Dr Yazdi had gone there to attend a memorial service for the daughter of a friend. Police violently disrupted their prayers and took a number of people into custody, including Dr Yazdi. The authorities later justified these arrests with the claim that this was an "illegal prayer" because it occurred without prior permission from the government. This is the third time since the 2009 presidential elections in Iran that Ebrahim Yazdi has been arrested.
Read Full Appeal
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About CSID
By supporting CSID, you help to: - Create a better future for our children so they can have more opportunities for improving their lives and realizing their dreams.
- Educate and inform Americans about Islam's true values of tolerance, peace, and good will towards mankind, including peoples of other faiths.
- Improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world by supporting popular movements rather than oppressive tyrannies and corrupt regimes.
- Replace the feelings of hopelessness, despair, and anger in many parts of the Muslim world, especially among the youth, with a more positive and hopeful outlook for the future.
- Encourage young Muslim Americans, and Muslims everywhere, to participate in the political process and to reject calls for destructive violence and extremism.
- Build a network of Muslim democrats around the globe who can share knowledge and experience about how to build and strengthen democratic institutions and traditions in the Muslim countries.
Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy Membership/Donation Form 2010
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Please donate generously. Your contribution to CSID is both tax-deductible, and zakat-eligible. Your contribution will make a world of difference.
The Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy is a non-profit think tank, based in Washington DC - dedicated to promoting a better understanding of democracy in the Muslim world, and a better understanding of Islam in America. To achieve its objectives, the Center organizes meetings, conferences, and publishes several reports and periodicals. CSID engages Muslim groups, parties, and governments - both secularist and moderate Islamist - in public debates on how to reconcile Muslims' interpretation of Islam and democracy. CSID is committed to providing democracy education to ordinary citizens, civil society, religious and political leaders in the Muslim world, and has organized meetings, workshops, and conferences in over 25 countries, including Nigeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, etc.
"Today, more than ever, we in the United States of America and
beyond need to hear, understand, and promote the voices of reason,
moderation, and democracy among Muslims. The CSID is one of the most
articulate platforms serving this need. Through the CSID we can and
have been tackling the deficit of democracy, human rights, especially
women's rights in many Islamic societies. By supporting CSID we help
support dialogue and understanding, instead of clash, among
civilizations."
Nayereh Tohidi
Professor & Department Chair
Women's Studies, CSUN & UCLA
"There are few issues of greater concern to the future of the Muslim
world than the prospects for democracy. CSID has pioneered the
promotion of democracy at the practical level, and in this regard has
provided invaluable service through education and social activism."
Vali Nasr, Professor
Naval Postgraduate School
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