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Is
Democracy Taking Hold in Iraq?
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By
Muslim Affairs Staff
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Aug
10, 2005
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Twenty-eight months after Operation Iraqi
Freedom, there is an ongoing public debate on the war’s
repercussions.
IslamOnline.net’s Muslim Affairs section
will be providing special coverage of the heated discussion of the
US role in Middle East change. In the next few months, through our
various materials (articles, live dialogue sessions, discussion
forums, polls, multimedia presentations, and e-mail–based
debates), we will raise the question of whether the US-led war on
Iraq has started the country’s democratization process and set the
stage for reform in the Middle East, a region long-dominated by
dictatorships. Be sure to follow our updates.
Today in Is Democracy Taking Hold in Iraq?,
we present two opposing viewpoints on democracy and freedom in the
war-torn country:
- In his article “Rethinking
the Iraq War: Time for American Muslims to Support Iraqi
Democracy,” Shadi Hamid, an
Egyptian-American master’s candidate in Arab studies at
Georgetown University, writes, “The war itself is over. ...
Let us put our dislike of Bush and his coterie of
warmongering, torture-condoning neo-cons aside, and focus on
what is really important—the future of our Iraqi brothers
and sisters, who deserve nothing less than to live as free
citizens, free from the evils of autocracy and the scourge of
terrorism.” Click here
to read the article in full.
- Jo Wilding, a British
activist who spent several months in Iraq—before, during,
and after the war—holds a different opinion. In her article
“The
‘Right Message’ About Democracy in Iraq,”
she explains why the new Iraqi government is “over a
barrel” and there is “still no democracy for the Iraqi
people.” Click here
to read the article in full.
Let us know what you think; e-mail us your
opinion at Middle_East_Democracy@islamonline.net.
Click here
to join our discussion forum
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