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Islam
and Democracy
Patrick Doyle ‘04
Anthony Shadid, the Foreign Affairs Correspondent in Washington
for the Boston Globe, spoke on October 28th in the St. Augustine Center.
The lecture, sponsored by the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, and
co-sponsored by the Communications Department, offered students and faculty
the chance to hear an award-winning journalist offer his insider opinion
on politics within the Muslim world.
Shadid, a fluent Arabic speaker, was stationed in Cairo
for much of the 1990s during his stint as an Associated Press correspondent.
He switched over to the Globe in 2000, but still travels to the Middle
East to support coverage of the continuing conflict.
Shadid’s lecture, titled “Islam’s New
Politics: Dissent, Democracy and a Changing World,” touched on the
emergence of a new type politics in the Middle East: democracy. He cited
the changing strategies of a number of Islamic groups, specifically Hezbollah,
a group known in the 1980s for its terrorist activities.
Today, according to Shadid, Hezbollah has switched tactics
from war to political participation, making a “new, conscious choice
for peace.” Hezbollah has also begun to offer cheap, but quality
medical treatment to the poor, a sign of their peaceful intentions, according
to Shadid.
Despite the reformed efforts of groups like Hezbollah,
as well as the push for democracy by other grassroots organizations, Islamic
democracy has not gained a firm footing. Democracy in the Middle East
has been taking “two steps forward, one step back,” said Shadid.
Terrorist activities continue to cripple the European and American opinion
of the Middle East, especially following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Shadid urges the United States and the United Nations
to press for democracy, in the name of stability and freedom. “A
region without democracy once served our [economic] intentions,”
said Shadid. “It backfired. Islamic democracy is a chance for stability
and the West should embrace and encourage it.”
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