"This will bring about undesired results," Mubarak

By Hamdi Al Husseini, IOL Correspondent

ALEXANDRIA, March 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Marred by absence of civil society leaders, lack of serious papers and behind closed doors sessions, a conference on Arab reforms continued its second day in the Mediterranean coastal Egyptian city of Alexandria Saturday, March 13.

Attended by more than 100 intellectuals and activists form Arab countries, the conference probes introducing political, economic, social and cultural reforms.

The agenda came much similar to the details of the U.S. initiative, which calls for encouraging democracy, bringing up an educated society as well as widening economic chances.

But the decision to keep all sessions of the conference behind closed doors raised consternation among awaiting journalists and most of the participants.

"The Arab civil society does not have a sufficient presence here," said Hafez Abu Seada, the secretary general of the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights.

Seada complained that most of the participants, invited only two days before the meeting, giving them little or no time to prepare for the should-be hot brainstorming.

A number of intellectuals invited for the gathering did not turn up, including Islamic writer Fahmi Howeidi and political science expert Hassan Nafaa (both Egyptians).

Sources in the organizing body told IslamOnline.net that only 30 Arab figures and 10 women attend the three-day sessions.

An Egyptian human rights activist told IslamOnline.net - on condition of anonymity - that the insufficient representation of NGOs and the lack or organization haunted the conference.

Conspicuously absent was Bahieddin Hassan, the head of the Cairo Human Rights Center. Gamal Mubarak, the Egyptian President's son, and ruling National Democratic Party leader Safwat Al-Sharif attended the opening session.

The meeting is expected to adopt recommendations that will be submitted to the Arab heads of state summit on March 29-30 in Tunis.

"What really does matter is the outcome of the conference and how to put its recommendations on the ground," Al-Hayat veteran columnist Gihad Al-Khazzen said, while getting out of one session seemingly with a feeling of boredom.

No Radicals

Egyptian President Hosni Muabark said in the opening speech Friday that reforms should be homegrown and gradual, lest fundamentalist groups could seize power.

"We should follow a reform style which would not undermine stability and encourage forces of radicalism and fundamentalism to direct the course of reform toward their own objectives," Mubarak said.

"This will bring about undesired results," he warned, speaking to Arab intellectuals and civil society delegates.

The warning of the Egyptian veteran leader – now in power for 23 years since 1981 - came in the face of the a U.S. initiative to promote democracy in the region, which has drawn wide consternation from leaders of the region hoping that reforms would rather come from within.

Saudi newspaper Al-Watan said in a recent report that Islamic groups could seize power in a number of countries if democracy was applied, a supposition Washington surely does not want to materialize.

Washington, which sees democracy and economic liberalization as the answer to the poverty and repression that fuel Arab extremism, wants to launch the initiative at the Group of Eight summit of leading industrial nations in June.

Two-Pronged

Mubarak said that Arab governments agree on a two-pronged strategy for reform" that fosters "modernization and a just and lasting settlement for a Middle East rid of weapons of mass destruction".

Calling on the world "not to see Islamic culture as a culture of extremism and violence," Muabark stressed that Islam was a religion based on tolerance.

He said that the continued Arab-Israeli conflict was one of the main causes of "terrorism and extremism".

The Egyptian leader said that plans for reform should be homegrown and gradual, and not the result of U.S. pressure.

Citing the example of Algeria, Mubarak told Italy's La Repubblica daily last week that "instant freedom and democracy can have a seismic effect on a country."