Daniel Greenfield can be counted on to write something that provokes thought at his Sultan Knish blog. Today he writes about democracy.>
The Muslim world is not divided between the dictators and, that construct, the people. It is divided between the possible dictators that different groups within it champion. Like the American elections of 2012, the Egyptian election was about entitled groups elevating a totemic figure on a pole that represented their identity. And when group identity is asserted as national identity, then elections come down to demographic contests where group power, not ideas or policies, is the true prize.
Group votes don't lead to human rights, they lead to group privileges. They lead to rights for some and no rights for others. They lead to a group state where group membership is citizenship and lack of group membership is treason. And that is exactly what the Arab Spring has given us; an Egypt where religion defines citizenship and a Syria where religion determines who you'll be shooting at. This is Muslim democracy and it's a foolproof recipe for civil war and tyranny, in any order.
Egypt will be Egypt and Iraq will be Iraq. It is up to their people to find a way out of their cycle of violence and tyranny. Our task is to make certain that America remains America and that we do not find ourselves in the same cycle as the protesters challenging tyranny in Tahir Square.
Read much more here: http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/12/with-pocketful-of-democracy.html