{"id":1888,"date":"2004-04-15T01:05:41","date_gmt":"2004-04-15T06:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2004-04-15T01:05:41","modified_gmt":"2004-04-15T06:05:41","slug":"undemocratic_countries_avoid_islam_democracy_conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/04\/undemocratic_countries_avoid_islam_democracy_conference\/","title":{"rendered":": Undemocratic Countries Avoid &#8220;Islam &amp;amp; Democracy&#8221; Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/democracy_islamic.jpg\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\"><\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot of pressure of Muslim countries to reform with respect to democracy and human rights \u2013 movements from within (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracy-egypt.org%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Saad Eddin Ibrahim<\/a> of Egypt and <a href=\"http:\/\/portal.unesco.org%2Fen%2Fev.php%40URL_ID%3D18651%26URL_DO%3DDO_PRINTPAGE%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sherin Ebadi<\/a> of Iran), realizations from current leaders that progress requires change (see efforts in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.middle-east-online.com%2Fenglish%2Fjordan%2F%3Fid%3D9291\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Jordan<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webprowire.com%2Fsummaries%2F660105.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Libya<\/a>, and pressure from the United States in the form of the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/english.aljazeera.net%2FNR%2Fexeres%2F27852221-BB86-44BC-A91C-E641F588E6F4.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Greater Middle East Initiative<\/a>\u201c.  In the face of these challenges, pro-democracy advocates, human rights workers, and government officials gathered in Istanbul to discuss reform at a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk%2Fworldlatest%2Fstory%2F0%2C1280%2C-3977459%2C00.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">conference<\/a> on Islam and democracy.  The meeting was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com%2Fmld%2Fmercurynews%2Fnews%2Fworld%2F8430602.htm%3F1c\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">sponsored<\/a> by the UN Development Program and the Washington-based <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ndi.org%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">National Democratic Institute for International Affairs<\/a>, headed by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.  \u201cWe  should end the debate whether Islam is compatible with democracy or not,\u201d said Turkish Minister of State Mehmet Aydin, \u201cand take steps towards <a href=\"http:\/\/www.islam-online.net%2FEnglish%2FNews%2F2004-04%2F14%2Farticle08.shtml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">institutionalizing<\/a> principles of democracy in Islamic societies.\u201d  Others, such as Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher, stressed the need to promote <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taipeitimes.com%2FNews%2Fworld%2Farchives%2F2004%2F04%2F14%2F2003136623\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">home-grown efforts<\/a> at freedom, women\u2019s rights, and educational reform, otherwise \u201copponents of political and social reform will conveniently label reform efforts as a mere implementation of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com%2Fcgi-bin%2Fnews_service%2Fmiddle_east_full_story.asp%3Fservice_id%3D1475\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Western agenda<\/a>.\u201d  Among the countries not represented were some that needed to hear the message of the conference most, including Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran.  The meeting concluded with a communique that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zaman.com%2F%3Fbl%3Dinternational%26alt%3D%26trh%3D20040412%26hn%3D7479\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">emphasized<\/a> the \u201cthe compatibility of Islam and the principles of democracy\u201d and stressed the delegates\u2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/english.aljazeera.net%2FNR%2Fexeres%2FE876878F-0B71-44BE-8BF2-0E861297E9BE.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">belief<\/a> in freedom of expression and of the press, the rule of law, regular multiparty elections, and the equal participation of women in the democratic decision-making process.<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There were a lot of good things said about Islam&#8217;s compatibility with democracy and human rights, but the worst offenders weren&#8217;t there to hear them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>: Undemocratic Countries Avoid &#8220;Islam &amp;amp; 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