An abbreviated version of this article was first published in Hebrew at “Can Think”. Both the Hebrew and English
versions of this article were published at MITVIM’s
website as part of the series “Impressions from the Region”
During October 5-11 the first
World Forum for Democracy of the
Council of Europe assembled
in Strasbourg under the banner: "Bridging the gap: Democracy: Between old
models and new realities". The Council of Europe was founded in Strasbourg
in 1949 and has been working ever since in the fields of human rights and the
promotion of democracy and international law. The member states of the Council
of Europe all signed the
European Convention on Human Rights, the basis on which the
European Court
of Human Rights acts. Although the 27 member states of the European
Union are full members of the Council of Europe, the council is not a part of
the European Union. It is an independent international organization that
includes 47 member states (
Turkey,
for example, is a full member in the council of Europe since its establishment
and
Israel was granted the status of an observer in 1957).
Full membership in the council is considered as a necessary station on the road
to join the European Union.
Most of the debates of the Forum
for Democracy were held at the Palace of Europe (Palais de l'Europe), the seat
of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The forum has a
long list of supporters and partners, which includes
organizations and governments among them, including the European Union, the
French Government, the region of Alsace and the city of Strasbourg. From the
obvious efforts put in to the prestigious décor and the impressive list of
invited guests, it seems like the Council of Europe is trying to label the
event as a prestigious international conference that assembles regularly,
similar to the
World
Economic Forum that assembles annually in Davos, Switzerland.
The declared goal of the World
Forum for Democracy is to bring together high-ranking political officials,
leading international figures, experts from politics, civil society and
academia, media figures, journalists, and young leaders alongside parliament
members and world leaders, in order to generate a platform for an exchange of
experiences and perceptions. The forum aims to define the main challenges faced
by democratic societies in the beginning of the 21st century and to try and
provide them with answer. The opening seat of the forum was launched by a
speech of the Secretary General of the United Nations Mr. Ban Ki-moon and
Ms.
Tawakkol
Karman from Yemen, a politician, a human rights activists and the
Nobel Peace Prize winner for 2011.
A brief history of the
democratic discourse
It is interesting to observe the
dialectic development of the discourse on democracy during the second half of
the 20st century and the beginning of the 21st. After the Second World War, the
Cold War divided the world between East and West. In the 1980's the victory of
the West and the rise of liberal democracy became apparent. This line of
thought was expressed by the political economist Francis Fukuyama in his famous
essay published on 1989 "
The End of History" and was further developed in his
book "
The End of History and the Last Man" published in
1992.
Following the collapse of the
Soviet Union in late 1991 a process of democratization took place in many of
the former Eastern bloc states. In the beginning of the first decade of the
current century the European Union and the NATO
expanded to
the East and added to their ranks the east European countries, former
members of the eastern bloc. From a bi-polar world the international system
moved towards unipolar hegemony of liberal democracy led by the United States
and Western Europe. Fukuyama's prophecy was becoming true.
The political scientist Samuel P.
Huntington challenged the concept of "The End of History" by
suggesting his own theory, that he called "
The Clash of Civilizations". Huntington claims that
the world is not heading towards a better future but towards a series of wars
that will take place between civilizations. This age will be characterized by
the fading of Western civilization in the face of the challenges posed by the
Islamic and Chinese civilizations.
Both theories describe a
Manichean world of black and white. In contrast, the discourse that took place
at the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg reflected a much more colorful
world. Instead of utopia or collision, the current discourse reveals a complex
multipolar and multicultural world. The organizers were not afraid to ask
whether democracy is a universal value at all and whether it is possible or
necessary to impose democracy. A large variety of topics were debated, among
them economy, markets, and democracy in the global era. A central issue that
kept coming up throughout the forum was the question of religion and democracy.
The hottest topic in the Forum for Democracy was without a doubt Islam
(throughout the world and in relation to the West) and the Arab Spring.
The Arab Spring and the
French Autumn
The list of speakers was varied
and included participants from a great number of countries, from Russia and
Canada to the Republic of Guinea and Mexico. But the Muslim and Arab presence,
from Morocco to Pakistan, was particularly prominent. The highest demanded,
speakers so it seemed, were the Egyptian and Tunisian delegates that explained
and analyzed the developments in their countries. The Israeli diplomat Yehuda
Lancry (former ambassador to France and to the UN) participated in a discussion
on responsible democratic leadership and political ethics in a global age.
One of the most interesting
figures I saw during the forum was Moez Masoud (
معز
مسعود), a popular and
influential religious preacher from Egypt (
to Masoud's website in Arabic). Because Masoud preaches his
religious doctrine on Egyptian television and radio in colloquial Arabic, he
can be referred to as a
Muslim televangelist. Despite his young age, the
34-year-old Masoud is a highly sought-after speaker worldwide. Earlier this
year he took part in The World Economic Forum in Davos alongside prominent
world figures and religious leaders. Masoud is a respected Hafiz (
حافظ, someone
who has memorized the entire Quran) and a member of the distinguished
Royal Aal
al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan, he is also pursuing
his doctoral studies at the prestigious University of Cambridge. This
combination is also expressed in his speech, which is interwoven with
quotations both from the Quran and from Western Philosophy. In the same
breathe, Masoud interprets an Islamic term from classical Arabic and then
quotes Hegel or Kant in eloquent English.
|
World Forum for Democracy
in Strasbourg: participants in a debate on media responsibility and
potential to foster democracy (right to left): Elizabeth Linder (Facebook), Moez Masoud, Ali Ferzat (a
Syrian political cartoonist), Tawakkol Karman (political Activist, Journalist
and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner) and Melissa Eddy (the International Herald
Tribune). |
Masoud is a charismatic speaker
of Islam and of the Arab world in the west. His discourse is moderate and calm
as he analyzes the challenges facing the Arab and Muslim world with spiritual
and religious tools. He focuses on philosophy, psychology and interreligious
dialogue when he explains the Arab Spring as an opportunity for a modern Arab
identity and Islamic renewal. Masoud presents a moderate Islam which aspires to
integrate in the modern world, and at the same time
completely
rejects the western demand for secularism and dismisses it as
patronizing. To watch Masoud in a filmed debate of the World Forum for
Democracy on "Media responsibility and potential to foster democracy"
click here (starting
from minute 29:50)
Two speeches were made in the
closing session of the forum, by the Egyptian writer Nawal al-Saadawi (
her website), a pioneer
of
woman rights in her country, and the renowned Algerian
writer Boualem Sansal. Al-Saadawi declared that "everybody talks about
democracy, but nobody talks about justice," and described how power
relations come to practice through language. Al-Saadawi described a conspiracy
theory about an American-Israeli plot that supported Mubarak's regime on the
one hand, all the while assisting the Muslim Brotherhood to snatch the
revolution from the Egyptian citizens. In her own words Al-Saadawi turned the
citizens of Egypt to passive subjects who lack the responsibility of their
fate. Her claim that Egyptians are victims of a worldwide delirious conspiracy,
which allegedly takes away from them their ability to change their own destiny,
contradicts the very essence of the Tahrir revolution. Moreover, al-Saadawi
accused the state of Israel in being a Jewish fundamentalist theocracy (and
received applauds, while other shifted uncomfortably in their seats). The
Israeli delegate Yehuda Lancry got the right of reply and invited al-Saadawi to
visit Jerusalem. Indeed, Boualem Sansal was awarded the prize of the Arab novel
(le Prix du Roman Arabe) for 2012, but the award was withdrawn in the last
minute due to his visit to Israel and his participation in the International
Writers Festival in Jerusalem. Sansal presented the "
Strasbourg
Appeal", a brave writers' appeal for peace that was launched during
the forum by Sansal and the Israeli writer David Grossman.
Last spoke
Jamel Eddine Gharbi, Tunisian Minister of Planning and
Regional Development on behalf of Ennahda, Tunisia's center-right Islamist
party. Gharbi surveyed the democratic challenges facing the country that
sparked the Arab Spring. Presenting the role of the Ennahda party in the new
Tunisian democracy, Gharbi talked about democratic Islam, which promotes values
of progress and participation, and respects human and woman rights. Upon the
end of his declaration a young woman, a Tunisian university lecturer who was
sitting in the crowd, confronted Gharbi with some harsh facts reflecting the
severe crisis of the higher education system in the country. Gharbi was given
60 seconds to publically reply to her claims. The mere existence of such a
dialogue between the senior minister and the young lecturer is a testimony to
the deep change that is currently taking place in the Arab World.
The winds of the Arab Spring that
started to blow in the Magreb (North Africa) and spread to the Mashreq (the
Asian part of the Middle East) carry with them a new political mode, one within
where the words 'Islam' and 'democracy' are expressed in the same breath. The
events taking place in the Middle East have exposed the deep developments that
were occurring in Arab societies. In Tunisia and in Egypt it was to a great
extent the multitudes of young secular and educated man and woman who organized
themselves through social networks and took to the streets in protests that
ended up toppling the regimes. But in the democratic elections that followed,
it was the Islamic religious parties who took power, Ennahda and the Muslim
Brotherhood.
Referring to the rule of the
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Nawal al-Saadawi said "we didn't rally in
Tahrir Square in the name of Islamization and the implementation of
Sharia." On the other hand Moez Masoud described the moment when the fall
of Mubarak was first known in the square. According to him, upon receiving the
historical news, the first thing that the so called secular leaders of the
protest did, was to recite the verses of al-Fatiha, the opening chapter of the
Quran, and to shout the Takbir (Allah Akbar = "God is the Greatest) to the
top of their lungs. According to Masoud this is a proof that the protest was
not secular in its essence. Masoud also claimed that in literary Arabic there
is no word that corresponds to the Western concept of secularism or laïcité (as
he said, the term ilmaniyaعلمانية is modern
and conceived as carrying negative meanings).
Even if there are no two
homogenous and well-defined camps of "religious" and
"seculars," whatever is happening now in Tunisia and Egypt goes
beyond the pragmatic and political discourse on the nature of government and
the ways to implement a democracy. It is a discourse over the beliefs and the
exalted hopes of both sides, reflecting different perceptions of self identity
and culture. However, between the Western secular democratic model and the puritan
"political Islam" a new way emerges – that of democratic Islam. This
current trend is trying to integrate in the modern and democratic world without
having to give up its cultural and religious uniqueness. Will it succeed? Only
time will tell.
Some gloomy thoughts to
conclude
The scarce representation of
Israelis and Palestinians might be explained by their relative size in the
global sphere. But this claim falls back in light of the fact the state of
Fiji, a tiny island nation in the South Pacific Ocean was represented in the
forum three times more than Israel, and that there were no Palestinians
speakers at all. Despite this absence, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was
present almost in all the debates of the forum that I attended. There is no doubt
about the implications of this conflict on Middle East and global stability.
Because of that, the absence from the forum of Israeli and Palestinian
activists from civil society organizations working to promote peace and
democracy was especially obvious. Their participation in an international event
of such scale could have been a significant encouragement for them. Moreover
their presence would have enriched the forum and enabled a brave and direct
debate with Israelis and Palestinians themselves rather than discussions about
them in their absence.
In the conclusion of the forum a
young female activist from Yemen asked the organizers how it could be that not
one discussion had been dedicated to terrorism. She said that Islamic terror is
the most significant threat to freedom and security in her country and that a
real discussion on the challenges of democracy is not possible without an
appropriate reference to the question of terrorism. The lack of a significant
discourse on terrorism was made even more obvious by the fact that during the
discussions of the forum, the French police raided an
Islamic terror cell in the center of Strasbourg
itself.
Impressive as it may be, such a
public event cannot encompass all the variety and complexity of topics
regarding the challenges of democracy in the modern era. The lack of a deep
discussion in the World Forum for Democracy on issues like the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, terrorism, the massacre in Syria, the Iranian
nuclear program, the rise of the extreme right in Europe, anti-Semitism
(Islamophobia was discussed), and immigration and xenophobia, constitutes a
real miss and an escape from what could have been a brave involvement in hard
but important topics. One can only hope that the lessons will be implemented
next time.
Strasbourg's first World Forum
for Democracy did not end with a consensus. On the contrary, the forum
represented a rich variety of opinions, cultures and colors. Its goal was to
strengthen the participants and to empower their contribution to democracy in
their countries of origin. Strasbourg is the capital of the region of Alsace,
which passed between France and Germany about 17 times throughout the history.
This city symbolizes the change that occurred in Europe – from a periphery of
two countries and the heart of a long and bleeding conflict, to a European
capital of politics, human rights and peace. Revolutions and wars erupt in an
instant, but the success of democratic developments is slow and requires much
time.