Democracy in the Middle East

Over the last century, the Middle East has been the location of ethnic rivalry, political and economic instability, religious conflict, territorial dispute and war. Much of this tension in the Middle East comes from the various interpretations of Islam and how the religion should be applied to politics and society. Over the last ten years, the United States and their allies have pushed to promote democracy in the Middle East. However, they too have many obstacles they must overcome. They face problems such as the compatibility of Islamic law and democracy, the issue of women’s rights, and there is always the problem of how to go about implementing a democratic reform in these countries. Many initially would assume that it is only the culture of the Middle East that repels them away from a democratic transition. Diamond on the other hand does not believe it is the culture or the religion that stops a democratic reform instead it is the regimes themselves and the region’s distinctive geopolitics. Although democracy may have reached the Middle East, it may be too difficult to completely change that area from authoritarian to democratic.

Democracy seemed to be hitting the Middle East at full throttle after the 2003 Iraq Invasion by the United States. Diamond depicts that this is significant because “…the worst democratic tyrant in the most oppressive region of the world had been toppled…” (Diamond 263), which made Iraq’s neighbouring regions nervous. For example, Jordan was a country that started forming a political opening even though it was limited. After Saddam’s regime was overthrown in 2003, a large amount of economic aid from the United States and the Gulf oil states helped Jordan’s progress towards democratizing. King Abdul...

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...hat equality among all people regardless of race, gender, or sexual preference is essential. The culture and the religion do not promote these equalities. It would be really difficult to convert a region that takes pride in their religion and culture to suddenly change to a more moderate view. The Islamic world is not ready to absorb the basic values of modernism and democracy. Leadership remains the prerogative of the ruling elites. Arab and Islamic leadership are coercive and authoritarian. Such basic principles as sovereignty, legitimacy, political participation and pluralism, and those individual rights and freedoms inherent in democracy do not exist in a system where Islam is the ultimate source of law. Islamists themselves regard liberal democracy with contempt. They are willing to accommodate it as an avenue to power but as an avenue that runs only one way.