The Muslim Student Awareness Network (MSAN), in collaboration with the Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law (CDDRL), hosted a discussion last night on “The Muslim World and Democracy: Today and Tomorrow” in Cubberley Auditorium.
CDDRL Director Larry Diamond moderated a panel of three noted speakers who shared their thoughts on issues that MSAN proffered for discussion.
The panelists were Abbas Milani. the Hamid and Christina Moghadam, Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford and Research Fellow for the Hoover Institution; Scott Carpenter, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and Keston Family Fellow for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former C.I.A. officer and the Senior Fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracy.
Each speaker provided a distinct outlook on democratization in the Muslim world.
“There is Islam. But, as we think of the United States as a nation-state, so too should we be thinking about the Muslim world as individual nation-states,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said he is hopeful about future democratization.
“In all the Muslim majority countries, they all have pretensions of democracy,” he said.
Commenting on the autocratic leanings of many Muslim-majority countries, Carpenter added, “We tend to forget that our [United States] institutions were born of the same aspirations. George Washington was offered a monarchy. Luckily, he turned it down.”
Milani addressed why democracy experiments in the Muslim world have failed in the past.
“One of the most recurring and justified claims is that the Muslim world has tended to not like criticism or self-inspection,” Milani said. “It is one of the great maladies of the Arab world.”
Milani expressed his belief that Islam and democracy are compatible and further discussed whether Islamic fundamentalism and democracy are compatible.
“I would posit that if you reduce anything to one dogma, as is the way with fundamentalism, then an ideology like democracy cannot coexist with this fundamentalism,” Milani said. “Democracy posits that we do not know all the answers. If we know all the answers, which is claimed in fundamentalist thought, then the door for democracy is closed.”
“You cannot have a Muslim democracy. You cannot have a Jewish democracy. You cannot have a Christian democracy,” he added.
Gerecht highlighted some views that may portray democracy in an unfavorable light in Muslim states. For example, Gerecht claimed that, traditionally, women’s social rights have expanded under dictatorships.
Furthermore, he said that there is a belief in the Muslim world that if democracy were to grow, anti-Americanism would also grow.
“Democracy will actually be a harbinger to a more religious society,” Gerecht speculated, referring to a belief held by some Muslims.
Though the event left much to be debated, organizers were satisfied that it served its purpose.
“The main goal was to pose some hard questions that are generally not posed in the Muslim world and create an opportunity for the Muslim community, and others at Stanford, to hear these questions debated and discussed in a public forum,” said Mohammad Ali ’10, president of MSAN.
Moreover, attendees stated that the three speakers’ diverse perspectives made for an engaging event.
“I was glad there was a difference of opinion on the panel,” said Jennifer Leather ’13. “The diversity in views allowed for a more interesting discussion.”