Faith in Democracy

THE STIRRINGS OF A NEW wave of democracy are underway in one of the least probable regions of the world: the Middle East and Central Asia. Elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Palestinian territory, and Lebanon, together with rumblings of liberalization in Egypt, are tangible signs of a growing desire for democratic forms. While the ultimate prospects for success are uncertain--waves of democracy have been partly reversed before--all observers agree that the outcome will hinge in part on meeting the enormous challenges stemming from the interactions of faith and politics. The influence of religion, especially Islam, is considerable throughout the region, and it is impossible to imagine achieving a natural equilibrium between society and government without religion playing some role. Yet Western intellectuals have been strangely inhibited in honestly assessing, or even frankly discussing, the many dimensions of this issue, largely because they have been preoccupied with the role of faith in Western societies and with trying to discredit a growing influence of the religiously minded on American political life. Given all that is at stake in the Middle East, the tangle of this willful confusion deserves a closer look.

Much of the energy for the current wave of democratization has been supplied by Iraq, where the experiment is taking place under the most difficult of circumstances. The first Iraqi elections, held in January 2005, illustrated the importance of Islam in the local political cultures, when the religious-based Dawa party came out on top. Religious elements, working with other parts of Iraqi society, were also instrumental in navigating the long process that ended the other week in securing adoption of a new democratic constitution.