In response to my blog yesterday noting that the cultural left opposes democracy in the Muslim world, several people expressed indignation. One challenged me to provide a single example. Others lugubriously noted that they favored the idea of democracy but alas it wasn't succeeding in Iraq. Certainly it does seem odd that a left which is always calling for "more democracy" in America would resist democracy in Muslim countries.
Yet it's true, and my book The Enemy at Home provides chapter and verse. For instance, the leftist author Robert Fisk resolutely opposed America's attempt to introduce democracy in Afghanistan. Incredibly Fisk said that the Taliban government should be kept in power because it had nothing to do with 9/11. Leftist Howard Zinn also equated America's displacement of the Taliban and holding of free elections with the 9/11 attacks themselves, as though both were equivalent crimes. Leftist legal scholar Richard Falk called for a "negotiated settlement" with the Taliban in order to protect the country's "sovereign rights." If leading leftists such as Edward Said, Toni Morison, Jesse Jackson, Barbara Ehrenreich, Jane Fonda and Jim McDermott had their way, the U.S. would not have overthrown the Taliban government and Afghanistan would not have had free elections.
Immediately following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, leftist philanthropist George Soros warned that "I would consider Iraq the last place to choose for a demonstration project" in democracy. Why the Iraqis were ineligible to rule themselves, Soros did not say. When Iraq had its first free election, columnist Bob Herbert said it meant nothing because "a real democracy requires an informed electorate" while the Iraqi people were "woefully uninformed," apparently because they didn't make the choices that Herbert wanted. Leftist columnist Robert Dreyfuss said the Iraqi elections were invalid because "the Sunni community was tricked into voting" and moreover the elected Sunnis "do not represent the resistance." Apparently Dreyfuss thinks car bombers need representation too! Ivan Eland wrote in The American Prospect, "Spreading democracy doesn't reduce terrorism and, if anything, actually makes it worse." How democracy promotes terrorism, Eland neglected to explain.
Notice how the cultural left routinely condemns Bush for "hypocrisy" in using the rhetoric of democracy while the U.S. is allied with secular despots, but very rarely do leftists call for free elections in countries like Syria, Egypt or Saudi Arabia. There was even some cheering on the left when Turkish generals threatened a coup to subvert the elected government from holding free elections a few months ago. So why does the left hate democracy in the Muslim world? The reason is simple. Muslims are socially conservative and generally want a greater role for Islam in their private and public lives. Consequently Muslim democracies are likely to be more conservative socially than they are when secular despots rule them. The left fears Muslim democracy because it is terrified of Muslim values, especially sharia or Muslim holy law. Feminists and gays are not likely to fare very well under Muslim holy law.
When Iraqis rejected secular candidates and voted for a party that pledged to have sharia, at least in some forms of domestic law, the New York TImes howled that democracy could be "consigning Iraqi women to a life of subjugation." Columnist Maureen Dowd warned that "the Iraqi election may actually be making things worse" because "it is going to expand the control of the Shia theocrats." These complaints might have some plausibility if women or Sunnis were not permitted to vote. But women and men both voted for the Dawa party, and so essentially the Times and Dowd were arguing that if Iraqis don't want equal roles for men and women, their democracy is a sham.
Bush's attempt to introduce democracy to Iraq, and to expand the role of democracy in Egypt, Lebanon and Pakistan, is a brave and noble experiment. It might fail, and past historical experience is not promising. But if Bush succeeds we could see the beginning of an historical transformation no less significant than the transformation of the old Soviet Union. No wonder the left, not usually given to supplication, is praying very ardently this Christmas season that Bush does not succeed. If democracy fails, in Iraq and elsewhere, there is the added benefit that Democrats will have a better chance to take the White House in 2008.
Mo Rocca has appeared on a bunch of shows, including 'The Daily Show,' 'I Love the 80s,'...
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Why the Left Hates Democracy
Posted Dec 28th 2007 1:32PM by Dinesh D'Souza
Filed under: Breaking News, Iraq, Cultural Left, Islamic Radicals, Controversy
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Reader Comments ( Page 7 of 27)
91. Linda:
Are you still comparing evolution to the law of gravity?
kulari94 at 12:40AM on Dec 29th 2007
92. Are you still comparing evolution to the law of gravity?
xxxx
gravity is theory, not law.
Clif Kuplen at 12:44AM on Dec 29th 2007
93. Linda:
Aren't you also the one who used the example of civilizations beside rivers as examples of evolution?? If anything, that's evidence of things happening by design. I don't even have to say anything - you do yourself in.
kulari94 at 12:47AM on Dec 29th 2007
94. If anything, that's evidence of things happening by design.
xxxx
Which is more complex, the design or the designer?
Clif Kuplen at 12:51AM on Dec 29th 2007
95. Clif:
I think gravity is a law - Newton's law of gravitation??
kulari94 at 12:55AM on Dec 29th 2007
96. Clif:
I'm not sure what you're asking.
kulari94 at 12:57AM on Dec 29th 2007
97. 95. Clif:
I think gravity is a law - Newton's law of gravitation??
kulari94 at 12:55AM on Dec 29th 2007
xxx
no - Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Can a designer design something more complex than himself? That seems like a straightforward enough question.
Clif Kuplen at 1:25AM on Dec 29th 2007
98. kulari you is ignant
mac65 at 1:32AM on Dec 29th 2007
99. This is from ...
http://www.conservativebookservice.com/products/BookPage.asp?prod_cd=c6996
"Why conservatives should stop attacking Islam and the Prophet Muhammad because this only pushes traditional Muslims into the arms of the radical Muslims"
So, Gassett... are you ready and willing to suckhole to Muslims NOW?
... or are you doubting that my copy/paste is anything more than a spewclown?!!!
pboyfloyd at 1:34AM on Dec 29th 2007
100. Dinesh D'Souza why do you hate?
Steven Parker at 1:37AM on Dec 29th 2007
101. I love this one...
"His[D'Souza's] January 28 reply to critics[of the book] which ran in the Washington Post, is a masterpiece of dissembling: he complains that Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert hounded him with the question “But you agree with the Islamic radicals, don’t you?”—but fails to mention that he finally replied “Yes.”"
... from...
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=152059
... which kinda puts Gassett in the unfortunate position of defending D'Souza while D'Souza defends Islam... which Gassett ... is it 'hates'.. or do you think that throwing in a couple of 'spewclowns' is distracting enough...
... distracting enough so's we won't notice that you must, to be true to your own particular brand of logic, you must now hate D'Souza for this outrage.
pboyfloyd at 1:51AM on Dec 29th 2007
102. And of course the objective of assuring the oil supply continually flowed to the USA, which would otherwise collapse the US economy as many world leaders quietly stated was the MAIN OBJECTIVE,and many wonder why no WMD'S were ever found,no association with other groups were reported. So we should say according to D'souza that everything is OK. how many US casualties in Iraq? how many outside Iraq but related to Iraq? have we succeded in Iraq with a true democracy or a convenient one?.I also wonder why so many of the willing are now unwilling,which shows how much they were willing- today!And Afghanistan- how succesfull has that caper been? MAY BE ,JUST MAY BE " A NEW ROAD MAP IS REQUIRED, WRITTEN BY SOME ONE WHO UNDERSTANDS THE ROAD AND DOES NOT CROSS RED LIGHTS CAUSING CASUALTIES TO THE DRIVER AND THE PEDESTRIANS"
Kevin at 2:16AM on Dec 29th 2007
103. I don't like this one because it smacks of forcing conflicting beliefs which forces you to compartmentalize reason to avoid reason itself. Each statement seems reasonable by itself...
a)The hated Islamic radicals are in league with the hated 'left'.
b)The hated Islamic radicals hate America because they hate the hated 'left'.
Thus, Thomas J Gassett et al can say, almost in the same sentence, almost.. "You 'lefties' and the terrorist are "lovers".. ", ".. who caused 9/11 because the terrorists hate you."
"Freedom to do irreligious things is the cause... to maintain freedom we must take it away."
This is pure religious thinking, a la, "You have freedom to choose, but all is written in the Book of Life... your 'choice' NOW has been recorded from the beginning of time."
Kind of, "I always will have known what you what your choice will be."
D'Souza's central thesis is an absurd one, constructed around two clashing arguments: 1) that the American left is allied to the Islamic radical movement to undermine the Bush White House and American foreign policy; and 2) that "the left is the primary reason for Islamic anti-Americanism as well as the anti-Americanism of other traditional cultures around the world"
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/06/features/bookmer.php
Notice how D'Souza juxtaposes 'traditional' and 'radical'... as if it isn't a human tradition to war.
Ain't you traditional Gassett???
Know what... that's probably tradition too... hate, hate, hate, hate... the enemies are radicals... fight, fight, fight... and so on...
... remember the 'good old days' when there was no hating and/or fighting... no you don't... when you were too young to know, that didn't mean there WASN'T hating and/or fighting... it just meant that you were too young to know.
pboyfloyd at 2:51AM on Dec 29th 2007
104. Let me try to explain why the Left hates what has happened with as little emotion as possible. President Bush changed the age old defense policy of "Mutually Assured Destruction" to a policy of aggression. In doing so, a pesky political fly kept pestering the administration and President Bush decided to take action. He went on vacation. The lack of a coordinated defense system resulted in an attack on America's shores. We had no air defense system on 9-11 and we were helpless to defend ourselves against our own planes. We did not investigate the attack and we went on the offensive. We ignored an anthrax attack that originated from an American source. We rushed to judge Iraq and connected them to 9-11 improperly. We passed a Patriot Act to spy domestically on those politically opposed to Bush's agenda. VP Cheney was placed in a bunker and the last time we heard from him was when he shot a lawyer. The Bush administration outed a CIA agent who challenged the facts offered by the administration. It has been alleged that Saddam was willing to surrender power, but the war was started with no mention of this fact. The Bush loyalists have all profited from the privitazion of the war and they are ripping off America through "Cost Plus" and "No Bid Contracts." We did not find the WMD that the Bush administration told us we would find. Did I mention that Bin Laden escaped from Tora Bora and gave us a cellphone? Iraq is not a war, it's an occupation. The occupation was going badly so we sent more troops to help us get out, but now we have annexed Iraq. Did I mention the British troops have found a way to return power to Iraq and things aren't exploding in their faces? How much more emotionless proof do you need? What follows the annexation is complete cooperation or the rebellion. Do you think Iraq is just going to surrender their will to us? Freedom means freedom from us. That's not happening under a Bush administration. War is easy, but peace takes a Democrat. A strong Left leaning Democrat who won't drop trow in the White House.
Cecil Jones at 3:04AM on Dec 29th 2007
105. Im for democracy if the people want it.
danny at 3:24AM on Dec 29th 2007