Category: Political Islam

Iraq’s ‘wobbly democracy faces most dangerous moment yet’

     

The streets of Baghdad were silent Tuesday after a week of peaceful protests — against corruption, unemployment and lack of basic services — turned deadly. More than 100 people were… Read more »

Renewing the promise of reconciling political Islam and democracy?

     

  Jamal Khashoggi and I disagreed on almost all political issues, but we agreed on one thing: that the Arab world had profoundly changed in ways that rendered the old… Read more »

Iran’s reformist movement – threatened or already dead?

     

Veterans of Iran’s reformist movement – Mohsen Aminzadeh, Mohammadreza Khatami, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, and Mostafa Tajzadeh – are concerned about the “mortal blow that even a limited military conflict with the United States of… Read more »

Tunisia’s democracy – enduring, but fragile?

     

As Tunisia heads towards scheduled parliamentary and presidential elections later this year, a bipartisan Senate resolution has reaffirmed the U.S.-Tunisia partnership, and publicly supported Tunisia’s ongoing transition “into a vibrant… Read more »

Tensions in Indonesia: ‘resilient elections, defective democracy’?

     

On the eve of historic elections, a conundrum lies at the heart of Indonesian politics. Successive governments have built one of the most important foundations of a successful democracy: free,… Read more »

Iraqi militias, US ‘make nice’ following elections?

     

Many Shiite armed factions in Iraq haven’t been threatening the United States of late, especially since they fared so well in the May 12 elections, receiving the second-most number of… Read more »

Gaza: Hamas’s social warfare strategy in action

     

  Palestinian protests on the Gaza-Israel border have dropped off over the past two days, with Israel on Wednesday pointing to what it said were Egyptian efforts to restore calm… Read more »

What Islamic exceptionalism means for democracy

     

Islam is exceptional in how it relates to law, governance and politics, and plays an outsized role in public life in the Arab world, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Shadi Hamid… Read more »

Iran decision: ’empowers undemocratic forces’ or gives scope for aiding civil society?

     

The sense of crisis in Iran runs deep and wide. The economy is in free fall. The currency is plummeting. Rising prices are squeezing city dwellers. A five-year drought is… Read more »

Iran’s economic crisis a consequence of political malaise: creates options for shift in regime?

     

All this week panicked Iranians have gathered in throngs outside banks and other financial businesses hoping to buy dollars, as the government seeks to head off a collapse in the… Read more »