Extremists Are “Kidnapping” Democracy, says Friedman
14 July 2006; New York Times

In his July 14th op-ed, “The Kidnapping of Democracy,” Thomas Friedman claims the elections that have been held in several Middle East countries are not exercises in democracy, but a vehicle for Islamist parties to consolidate and expand their power.

“What we are seeing in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon is an effort by Islamist parties to use elections to pursue their long-term aim of Islamizing the Arab-Muslim world,” Friedman writes. “This is not a conflict about Palestinian or Lebanese prisoners in Israel. This is a power struggle within Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq over who will call the shots in their newly elected ‘democratic’ governments and whether they will be real democracies.”

He quotes Israeli political theorist Yaron Ezrahi: “Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinians all held democratic elections, and the Western expectation was that these elections would produce legitimate governments that had the power to control violence and would assume the burden of responsibility of governing. But what happened in all three places is that we [produced] governments which are sovereign only on paper, but not over a territory.”

The minority Islamic parties gain and maintain power, Friedman says, because those that speak out against Hamas or Hezbollah are either labeled American sympathizers or killed, and the moderate majority is unable to stand against them. Meanwhile, other countries, especially those in Europe, have shown a great deal of hesitation to get involved and take a stand.

“The world needs to understand what is going on here: the little flowers of democracy that were planted in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories are being crushed by the boots of Syrian-backed Islamist militias who are desperate to keep real democracy from taking hold in this region and Iranian-backed Islamist militias desperate to keep modernism from taking hold.”