News Tip: Democracy Needed to End Middle East Violence
As long as repressive, corrupt and dictatorial governments remain in power in the Middle East, violence such as last weekends bombing in Saudi Arabia will continue, says Duke professor Ebrahim Moosa
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
As long as repressive, corrupt and dictatorial governments remain in power in the Middle East, violence such as last weekend's bombing in Saudi Arabia will continue, says a Duke University professor.
"If fundamental questions of governance are not addressed in the Middle East and the democratic space for political alternatives are denied, violence will remain an endemic feature," says Ebrahim Moosa, co-director of Duke's Center for the Study of Muslim Networks. "The tragic deaths resulting from the bombing in Saudi Arabia are just the most recent spectacle of political violence."
Moosa notes that violence in other Middle Eastern nations -- Egypt, Syria, Algeria and elsewhere -- is rooted in the authoritarian and oppressive nature of their governments.
"Dictatorships and monarchies who keep their subjects in bondage are a greater threat to security in an age of accessible and mobile tools of destruction," says Moosa, an associate research professor of religion. "When such dictatorships are coupled with hegemonic imperial powers like the United States, resistance and opposition gains even greater credibility since the threat is viewed as infinitely threatening."
Violence directed mostly at foreigners and high-ranking government officials in Egypt, for example, did kill civilians, but those collateral deaths did not cause the demise of those Islamist groups' popularity, Moosa says. A similar response can be expected in Saudi Arabia, which has faced political violence for the past two decades -- from the occupation of the holy city of Makka to the Khobar Towers bombings.
"Saudi citizens have expressed their disgust at the loss of life and condemned the violence, but few have assailed the political project behind the violence," says Moosa, who is writing a book provisionally titled "After Empire: Rethinking Islam in (Post) Modernity." "Only government officials have invoked Islam and said that such acts of violence are incompatible with Islamic teachings."
Moosa can be reached for additional comment by cell phone at (919) 270-3431 or by email.
