Islams and democracy
James Rupert, the Islamabad correspondent of New York Newsday, has recently been making the interesting argument that westerners who want to see the spread of democracy in the Muslim-peopled parts of the world should entertain the idea that, as he puts it, "in some cases only 'Islamic government' can be the solution."
I am therefore pleased to publish here, as an exclusive publication of 'Just World News'*, a short text in which he makes this case.... (drum-roll)
- Islams and democracy
by James Rupert
Islamabad, mid-August 2005
Indeed, I'd suggest that in some cases only "Islamic government" can be the solution. I was reminded of the argument for this last week in the Dir Valley of Pakistan's Pashtun belt, near the Afghan border. In Dir, Shad Begum, an energetic social worker in her 20s, is pushing the kind of revolution that I think most of us would want to see: education and basic health services for girls and women, and a voice in government for the female half of society.
Shad faces the Pashtuns' iron culture of absolute male power and frequent enslavement of women (a repression dressed and legitimized to a largely illiterate population as "Islam"). In her insular, tradition-bound society, she has no conceivable tool but Islam with which to challenge this misrule. In her case, of course, it's an Islam grounded in a much broader reading of the literature of her faith than that of those in power.
For those of us who are Western outsiders amid this battle of Islams, I think it's very hard to understand how deeply any contribution we might want to make has been tainted by the baggage of still-not-so-long-ago Western colonization, Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, etc. In Dir, the most dangerous thing our friend Shad does is to quietly take grants from Western relief and development agencies.
In Friday sermons, Dir's mullahs condemn the "obscenity and vulgarity" threatened by outsiders bent on change. And the men listen. Up the valley last month, a male relative shot social worker Zubaida Begum and her daughter to death after another worshipper taunted him (police reported) about failing to control her "un-Islamic" activities.
There's a reason that the tribal khans and landlords of Dir dress their repression as religion, and it's the reason that any reform must be dressed the same way. Put a little crudely, it's the only thing that sells. Westerners might fondly yearn for Shad to campaign for a more comfortably familiar, secular order in this corner of the Muslim world. But in Dir, it's hard to imagine her making any progress (or indeed surviving) by standing on a soapbox to recite Tom Paine.
Obviously, not all of the Islamic world is the Pashtun extreme, and the depth and details of the Islamic dress in which governments must come will vary. And just as obviously, we need to pay urgent attention when the "Islamic" features of Muslim-world governments are cover for repression. It's something that Iraqis fear as they draft their constitution these days, and God knows it's an issue here in Pakistan, too.
But Western people and polities that shudder at the phrase "Islamic government" must learn to lose that reflex. Most of us in the West surely wish to help Muslim liberals and democrats, whether Iran's celebrated Nobel laureate, Shirin Ebadi, or the unknown Shad Begum of Dir. But we must understand that Islamic forms of democracy are the only kind these liberals can build. If we can't swallow that, the best thing we can do for Ebadi or Shad is to shut up and go home.
* Rupert had articulated much of this same argument in a private communication earlier. But he and I lightly edited that text to arrive at the present one, and he happily gave permission for publishing it on JWN.
As I mention below, and I would argue that is applies to many third-world (i.e., middle-class-less) societies, the basic battle, albeit with cultural overtones at times (when they avail themselves), is the poor against the affluent or richer. In some real sense, and I saw this living in India, as well, not so long ago, is that radical Islam is one of the few ideologies in the post-Communism (with a capital "C") world that ostensibly fights for the rights and interests of the poor. The fact of the matter is, as I have put it in other contexts before, the terrorists literally have nothing to live for, so they find something to die for. That, I think, is perhaps the best definition possible for who is a "revolutionary." Whether we like it or not, radical Islam is the last best hope (for now) of the totally down and out and those who otherwise despise their oppression by the institutions of the day. Until the West (by which I mean institutions as well as voting populations) regains its apprehension of this fact, it will continue to mistake its way into advancing the cause of the Islamic extremists who ultimately want an Islamic republic of one sort or another.
I believe that truly progressive circumspection upon this reality can only lead to the conclusion that that ideology can only be changed by letting it play itself out. In Iran, we see it playing itself out, whereas Algeria has chosen to oppress it, and still is, and will continue to, in all likelihood, for a long time.
Students of Western history should realize that the West experienced exactly that on its own terms. Theocratic government existed for a long time in Europe, until its corruptions and imbalances resulted in social movements for change. I am not the first to say that this is the only way for this type of change to come about--it cannot, no matter how hard George W. Bush tries, be imposed at the end of a gun barrel.
This point really sticks in my craw, which is why I am writing still more. Many of us opposing the US invasion of Iraq, who would not be heard, argued well enough in advance, that we will not be able to control the situation. We will be lucky if a stable Islamic republic results from the US invasion. So far, the US's own efforts in fact appear to be attempting to preclude that level of stability and civility. I say that, because the US's obsession with democracy and human rights can, despite its good intentions, yet result in a lawlessness of a sort not seen in a generation (I am referring to southeast Asia in the 1970's here). The analogy for the Iraq situation was, of course, the Soviet Union, and, before that, its prototype, Yugoslavia: to wit, the existing regime in each instance, including Iraq and Afghanistan, had destroyed any competing social or cultural institution. Thus, when the controlling institution, as in the regime, is (was) destroyed, there literally is little else to replace it. In Yugoslavia, it was local identities, in the Soviet Union, it was nationalities, and within them, what would in the US be called mafias, and in Iraq, there is only the Islamic hierarchy. (Afghanistan, it seems, is an unusual case, in that the tribal identities, while powerful, have included a yearning for a national identity.) If the combined, and I say not just Shi'i, Islamic hierarchy (and that, from my limited knowledge, appears to include the rather nonhierarchical Sunni leadership) is capable of controlling the ground in Iraq, the US would be lucky to have them do so at this point, given what worse eventualities are otherwise possible.
Charles - Do you live in the U.S.? We do not have "an obsession with democracy and human rights." It would be nice if we did. We have an obsession with getting rich and flaunting it, or in most cases, voyeuristically admiring those who do.
Here's a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of barging into alien societies--to do good, of course:
...a couple I met in Danang during the war. The husband was the Vietnamese director of Mobil Oil, the wife a professor of philosophy at the University of Danang. Although she was a staunch anti-Communist who loved going to New York and Paris, she provided the clearest reason I'd ever heard why the United States should not intervene in a society it does not understand. Praising Ngo Dinh Diem, the South Vietnamese president who had been assassinated in 1963 when our government withdrew its support from him, she discoursed on his skill as a statesman, how he'd have made peace with the North Vietnamese, and how splendid a patriot he was, the last piece of praise catching in her throat so that she doubled back on it to declare, "In fact, I think Ngo Dinh Diem was without doubt the second-greatest patriot in the entire history of my country."
I bit on that one and gullibly asked who was the first greatest.
"Oh, Ho Chi Minh of course."
At that moment it was clear that if this philosopher's two seemingly irreconcilable assertions were true--according to the American left Diem was a puppet who was dropped when he proved both too corrupt and too independent, while Ho was George Washington and Abraham Lincoln combined; according to the right Ho was Stalinist and Diem was fine until he betrayed the cause--then the United States had no rational purpose sticking its nose, much less 2.15 million bodies, into what was taking place in Vietnam, regardless of whether the dispute was a revolution, civil war, insurgency against foreign invaders, anticolonialist struggle, reunification drive, or some of all of these...
The full 'Letter from Vietnam' by Oscar winning documentary maker Peter Davis can be read in the June 9, '03 issue of 'The Nation':
You couldn't pick a tougher district in all of Pakistan to test this theory if you tried. Dir had Taliban-style Sharia before Afghanistan did.
In 1994 Sufi Mohammed, the warlord of Dir, fought the Pakistani Army in the "Sharia or Shahadat" campaign. His goal wasn't to replace the government but to force it to implement Islamic Law. After 3 months and 300 deaths, the Pakistani government agreed to have its local representatives enforce Sufi Mohammed's version of Sharia in the districts of Dir and Malakand.
Those same Western commentators who are never at a loss at making patronizing comments about other societies somehow skip any mention of the context and history in which unsavory forces gained ascendancy. The same Pashtun area of Pakistan which Western publics now "shudder" at, had until recently a very strong local progressive political tradition which was suppressed over a period of decades by British and Pakistani governments:
http://www.khyber.org/people/nwfp/khanghafarkhan.shtml
http://www.asianreflection.com/khanafghanistan.shtml
Whatever the shortcomings of above movement and it's leaders, they believed in political contenstation and understood far better than outsiders how their society could be pulled out of stasis. The political vacuum left after the demise of popular parties was filled by those who would never have risen to prominence in even a halfway democratic setup that was sensitive to problems of ordinary people...
I would expand on Charles' observations about the class angles of radicalization and terrorism. In the case of radical Islam the driving force is extreme inequality in income distribution. As a whole the Islamic world is not poor, but the combination of large pockets of extreme poverty (in Pakistan, in refugee camps, in Egypt, etc.) with the extreme affluence of the oil gulf countries is a deadly mix. The poor have nothing to lose and grow up in a pressure cooker of unemployment, ignorance, blame shifting propaganda, and semi-criminal religious preaching. The rich grow up with infinite idle time, unemployment due to the oil industry not being labor intensive, cultural backwardness and religious hatred.
Put the two together and you have the means, the ideology, and the masses to blow up the world as we are witnessing. If democracy is too much to ask for them, maybe a BIG middle class a la Japan can work instead?
David
David:
'unemployment due to the oil industry not being labor intensive,"
If you could give us answers to these question pleas
1- Why there are 2 millions foreigners in Arabia Saudi mostly working in oil industry if the oil industry not being labor intensive?
2- There are one millions foreigners in Kuwait only if the oil industry not being labor intensive, where the population of Kuwaitis only less 400,000?
3- In the most African countries (not Muslim ones) they share all of extreme poverty, who responsible for this?
A New Strategic Approach to the Foreign Policy of the US
• Introduction
o The US is in need of a strategy with regard to its foreign policy similar to the one formulated after WWII in confronting the Soviet Union.
o The current paradigm of maintaining maximal stability in areas of vital interests is unproductive and is causing further disruption of traditional alliances and an erosion of our global position
• The inherent instability of post colonial states
o The post colonial entities created in Africa and the Middle East have inherent instability due the artificial nature of the boundaries and ethnic and religious composition of the populations. The concept of a nation-state has not taken root in the vast majority of these countries and the allegiance to clan, tribe, ethnicity, and religion is stronger than any allegiance to a unified nation-state concept.
o Authoritarian rule that characterizes these countries is often a reflection of these divisions as power is concentrated in a minority belonging to the same clan or ethnic-religious group. The corruption and cronyism that often accompany such dictatorships help in consolidating power and entrenching a few in outmoded and rigid autocracies.
o This combination of weak concept of a nation-state and an authoritarian regime where power resides in security institutions that are above the law and stronger than governmental institutions create the conditions for a vicious cycle of ever weakening of the state. It is therefore no wonder that several countries in Africa and the Middle East that are fragmenting after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war. The centrifugal forces at the heart of this fragmentation are no longer counterbalanced by the support of a cold war imperative whether from the West of East blocs.
o Iraq, as it descends into civil war and eventual fragmentation, is a case in point as the forces that kept the country together have been weakened be they the need for anti communist regime during the 50’s or Arab nationalism in the 70’s.
o Yet the entire strategy of the US in dealing with threats implies maintaining the status quo of the post colonial entities created after the first and then the second WW. This strategy will find the US involved in situations that will require a Herculean effort in nation building that will exhaust our resources and may very well in the process undermine the very foundation of the Republic. It is time to propose a whole new strategy of our foreign policy.
• Unification of the Lands of the Middle East
o The greater Middle East Initiative is dead on arrival as it relies on existing state structures. Any new initiative must assume that the current governments represent failed states and that the institutions cannot operate within the framework of this initiative.
o The US should formulate a plan with the EU for an economic, educational, and judicial integration of the countries of the Middle East and Africa based on the unifying concepts that appeal to the majority of the population.
o The EU in its last 50 years has shown a remarkable ability to work through significant differences of language and nationalities to forge a remarkable alliance of peoples across the continent. Similar concept should be formulated and applied to the Middle East.
• Themes of Unification
o The majority of the populations of the Middle East shares the same language, roughly the same recent history, and currently are under variations of the same autocratic regimes. They also share the same passion for their faith and would most certainly like to have Islam play a major role in regulating their affairs.
o The first step in engaging the populations of the Middle East is to ask the question of whether the great faith of Islam should be saved from the grip of any regime or government institution. In contrast to the experience in Europe where the State needed to be salvaged from the grip of the Church, in the Middle East it is the mosque that needs to be liberated from the grip of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
o This first step can be accomplished by having the population elect their local mosque boards and then assign their local imam. In Islam, the position of Imam is not fixed and the role can be very flexible and different according to different situations. Term limits, board review, and issues of qualifications and religious studies can be established through close collaboration between non governmental organizations, the UN, and the EU. Input from the communities of Muslims living the West is of paramount importance in gaining the confidence of the local population and dispelling any notion of malicious interference with the religion.
o The second step is to establish through the International Criminal Court and several law schools and the UN a forum for the formulation of a truly independent judiciary. The judiciary can be elected by the local population in a process similar to the one that established the role of the local mosque. It is imperative to make sure that the judiciary is independent of any religious or government body and that the local and provincial judges have full protection and immunity.
o The third step is the opening of a free press. The availability of satellite information and programs should be supplanted by the formation of school of journalism and monitoring of the independence and safety of the press
• Economic Integration
o It is axiomatic that economic development is key to the reforms outlined above. The US and the EU should work diligently on establishing freedom of movement of goods and services, abolition of tariffs, establishment of transparency and accountability and the formulation of trade and commerce judicial oversight.
o Along the same line, the EU and the US can help in establishing schools of government similar to the Kennedy School at Harvard and the ENA in France
• Shattering Established Concepts
o The first concept that needs to be shattered is the one that presupposes that a unified Middle East is a threat to Israel. Israel is the most powerful country in the region and has an arsenal of about 200 or more nuclear warheads. A threat to its existence is simply non existent at present
o The US and the EU would also be able to continue to insist on the guarantees that insure safety for Israel; after all that is the current and past policy of all US and EU states since WWII.
o The second concept that needs to be shattered is that an ideologically unified Middle East is a threat to the West. In reality a Middle East at ease with its ideals and traditions and with the ever important obsession with justice satisfied is a source of stability and prosperity for all concerned.
o The third concept that needs to be shattered is that the current regimes are the devils we know and are better than the ones we do not know. In reality it is these failed states and these regimes that are the main source of instability and the very fact that after more than 50 years of rule they sill lack legitimacy in the eyes of their populations is a testimony to their destabilizing nature. It is time to actively ask for their departure.
o Oil is not a blessing to the people of the Middle East. This idea that oil resources are the key to the prosperity of the region is counterproductive and untrue. In reality the neo-conservative assertion that Iraq could very well pay for its reconstruction after the invasion is a testimony to this folly. If the neo-conservatives were really true to their ideals they would have insisted that investment in human resources rather than oil would be the salvation of the region. After all, the people of Lebanon and Syria have had to be much more ingenious and entrepreneurial than their Gulf counterparts precisely because they did not have oil. It is human potential that is the essence of progress.
• Concepts worth exploring on the local and regional levels
o The mosque as the seat of local government institutions
The mosque in early Islamic tradition was a place of worship as well as the seat of local government
The prophet conducted social political and judicial activities within the mosque
After the establishment of a covenant with the population of Yathrib the prophet worked within the mosque to address the issues of all members of the community be they Muslim Jews, or pagans
The mosque with the local library, post office, police station, day care, and local clinic would be the ideal setting of having the local community establish popular representative institutions
Therefore, establishing the participation of the local community around the local identifiable institution that the majority relate to is the essence of such a first concept
o Parternerships
Educational associations of teachers and professors would be organized to present a unified curriculum of educations across all the communities of the region
Unification of the standards of achievement would also result from such an approach
Universities will partner with established institutions in the West in promoting independence, tenure, qualifications, support structures and most importantly governance issues
o Borders
Borders need to become similar to those that define the states of Europe and the US in that they are geographical and virtual. They should no longer be used to control the free movement of people, goods, and ideas.
Unified Passport for the ME would be used in a similar fashion to the EU passport where retention of the native region or town or country is used if so desired
Transportation
• Unified regulations similar to the FAA and the Department of Transportation would be used for all concerned regions and countries
• Investment in infrastructure for roads, bridges, rail, and airports would be an important component of the consolidation of the unification process.
o Health
The French health care system is deemed the best in the world for in relation to its expense. A similar effort to provide basic health services would be established throughout the region
The association of a clinic within the local mosque structure outlined above would help keep the basic needs of the population centered around the local community
Clean water resources for the region are essential for the promotion of population welfare
Immunization and nutrition centers can be established around the local mosque structure to allow for maximal impact of population health promotion
o Militia
The Muslim ideal defense system is one akin to the American early militia system whereby a standing army was not called for and was looked upon with suspicion as a source of power abuse
The local population can organize itself along a model similar to that of the Swiss system where able citizens are asked to follow a 3 months training period in basic military training
The militia would be supported by an all volunteer professional army where the recruitment and the office corps are vetted and educated in one of many military academies
The association of the military academies with those of the West would be an important component of insuring that highest quality of politically neutral officer corps that answers to the civilian authorities
The limitation of the heavy weaponry to the professional armed forces would insure in some measure their neutrality and prevents the abuse of power.
A New Strategic Approach to the Foreign Policy of the US
• Introduction
o The US is in need of a strategy with regard to its foreign policy similar to the one formulated after WWII in confronting the Soviet Union.
o The current paradigm of maintaining maximal stability in areas of vital interests is unproductive and is causing further disruption of traditional alliances and an erosion of our global position
• The inherent instability of post colonial states
o The post colonial entities created in Africa and the Middle East have inherent instability due the artificial nature of the boundaries and ethnic and religious composition of the populations. The concept of a nation-state has not taken root in the vast majority of these countries and the allegiance to clan, tribe, ethnicity, and religion is stronger than any allegiance to a unified nation-state concept.
o Authoritarian rule that characterizes these countries is often a reflection of these divisions as power is concentrated in a minority belonging to the same clan or ethnic-religious group. The corruption and cronyism that often accompany such dictatorships help in consolidating power and entrenching a few in outmoded and rigid autocracies.
o This combination of weak concept of a nation-state and an authoritarian regime where power resides in security institutions that are above the law and stronger than governmental institutions create the conditions for a vicious cycle of ever weakening of the state. It is therefore no wonder that several countries in Africa and the Middle East that are fragmenting after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war. The centrifugal forces at the heart of this fragmentation are no longer counterbalanced by the support of a cold war imperative whether from the West of East blocs.
o Iraq, as it descends into civil war and eventual fragmentation, is a case in point as the forces that kept the country together have been weakened be they the need for anti communist regime during the 50’s or Arab nationalism in the 70’s.
o Yet the entire strategy of the US in dealing with threats implies maintaining the status quo of the post colonial entities created after the first and then the second WW. This strategy will find the US involved in situations that will require a Herculean effort in nation building that will exhaust our resources and may very well in the process undermine the very foundation of the Republic. It is time to propose a whole new strategy of our foreign policy.
• Unification of the Lands of the Middle East
o The greater Middle East Initiative is dead on arrival as it relies on existing state structures. Any new initiative must assume that the current governments represent failed states and that the institutions cannot operate within the framework of this initiative.
o The US should formulate a plan with the EU for an economic, educational, and judicial integration of the countries of the Middle East and Africa based on the unifying concepts that appeal to the majority of the population.
o The EU in its last 50 years has shown a remarkable ability to work through significant differences of language and nationalities to forge a remarkable alliance of peoples across the continent. Similar concept should be formulated and applied to the Middle East.
• Themes of Unification
o The majority of the populations of the Middle East shares the same language, roughly the same recent history, and currently are under variations of the same autocratic regimes. They also share the same passion for their faith and would most certainly like to have Islam play a major role in regulating their affairs.
o The first step in engaging the populations of the Middle East is to ask the question of whether the great faith of Islam should be saved from the grip of any regime or government institution. In contrast to the experience in Europe where the State needed to be salvaged from the grip of the Church, in the Middle East it is the mosque that needs to be liberated from the grip of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
o This first step can be accomplished by having the population elect their local mosque boards and then assign their local imam. In Islam, the position of Imam is not fixed and the role can be very flexible and different according to different situations. Term limits, board review, and issues of qualifications and religious studies can be established through close collaboration between non governmental organizations, the UN, and the EU. Input from the communities of Muslims living the West is of paramount importance in gaining the confidence of the local population and dispelling any notion of malicious interference with the religion.
o The second step is to establish through the International Criminal Court and several law schools and the UN a forum for the formulation of a truly independent judiciary. The judiciary can be elected by the local population in a process similar to the one that established the role of the local mosque. It is imperative to make sure that the judiciary is independent of any religious or government body and that the local and provincial judges have full protection and immunity.
o The third step is the opening of a free press. The availability of satellite information and programs should be supplanted by the formation of school of journalism and monitoring of the independence and safety of the press
• Economic Integration
o It is axiomatic that economic development is key to the reforms outlined above. The US and the EU should work diligently on establishing freedom of movement of goods and services, abolition of tariffs, establishment of transparency and accountability and the formulation of trade and commerce judicial oversight.
o Along the same line, the EU and the US can help in establishing schools of government similar to the Kennedy School at Harvard and the ENA in France
• Shattering Established Concepts
o The first concept that needs to be shattered is the one that presupposes that a unified Middle East is a threat to Israel. Israel is the most powerful country in the region and has an arsenal of about 200 or more nuclear warheads. A threat to its existence is simply non existent at present
o The US and the EU would also be able to continue to insist on the guarantees that insure safety for Israel; after all that is the current and past policy of all US and EU states since WWII.
o The second concept that needs to be shattered is that an ideologically unified Middle East is a threat to the West. In reality a Middle East at ease with its ideals and traditions and with the ever important obsession with justice satisfied is a source of stability and prosperity for all concerned.
o The third concept that needs to be shattered is that the current regimes are the devils we know and are better than the ones we do not know. In reality it is these failed states and these regimes that are the main source of instability and the very fact that after more than 50 years of rule they sill lack legitimacy in the eyes of their populations is a testimony to their destabilizing nature. It is time to actively ask for their departure.
o Oil is not a blessing to the people of the Middle East. This idea that oil resources are the key to the prosperity of the region is counterproductive and untrue. In reality the neo-conservative assertion that Iraq could very well pay for its reconstruction after the invasion is a testimony to this folly. If the neo-conservatives were really true to their ideals they would have insisted that investment in human resources rather than oil would be the salvation of the region. After all, the people of Lebanon and Syria have had to be much more ingenious and entrepreneurial than their Gulf counterparts precisely because they did not have oil. It is human potential that is the essence of progress.
• Concepts worth exploring on the local and regional levels
o The mosque as the seat of local government institutions
The mosque in early Islamic tradition was a place of worship as well as the seat of local government
The prophet conducted social political and judicial activities within the mosque
After the establishment of a covenant with the population of Yathrib the prophet worked within the mosque to address the issues of all members of the community be they Muslim Jews, or pagans
The mosque with the local library, post office, police station, day care, and local clinic would be the ideal setting of having the local community establish popular representative institutions
Therefore, establishing the participation of the local community around the local identifiable institution that the majority relate to is the essence of such a first concept
o Parternerships
Educational associations of teachers and professors would be organized to present a unified curriculum of educations across all the communities of the region
Unification of the standards of achievement would also result from such an approach
Universities will partner with established institutions in the West in promoting independence, tenure, qualifications, support structures and most importantly governance issues
o Borders
Borders need to become similar to those that define the states of Europe and the US in that they are geographical and virtual. They should no longer be used to control the free movement of people, goods, and ideas.
Unified Passport for the ME would be used in a similar fashion to the EU passport where retention of the native region or town or country is used if so desired
Transportation
• Unified regulations similar to the FAA and the Department of Transportation would be used for all concerned regions and countries
• Investment in infrastructure for roads, bridges, rail, and airports would be an important component of the consolidation of the unification process.
o Health
The French health care system is deemed the best in the world for in relation to its expense. A similar effort to provide basic health services would be established throughout the region
The association of a clinic within the local mosque structure outlined above would help keep the basic needs of the population centered around the local community
Clean water resources for the region are essential for the promotion of population welfare
Immunization and nutrition centers can be established around the local mosque structure to allow for maximal impact of population health promotion
o Militia
The Muslim ideal defense system is one akin to the American early militia system whereby a standing army was not called for and was looked upon with suspicion as a source of power abuse
The local population can organize itself along a model similar to that of the Swiss system where able citizens are asked to follow a 3 months training period in basic military training
The militia would be supported by an all volunteer professional army where the recruitment and the office corps are vetted and educated in one of many military academies
The association of the military academies with those of the West would be an important component of insuring that highest quality of politically neutral officer corps that answers to the civilian authorities
The limitation of the heavy weaponry to the professional armed forces would insure in some measure their neutrality and prevents the abuse of power.
Salah,
The oil industry is not labor intensive. Just measure $/employee and you'll find out. The Saudi guest workers are partially because the Saudis don't want to do some chores. The government tried to get Saudis to work as taxi drivers by removing guest workers from that occupation.
The foreign workers in the oil industry are there because of their expertise. I guess that Saudi universities are nothing to write home about.
The other reason for the high number of foreign workers in Kuwait, for example, is that this paragon of Islamic hospitality does not integrate people as citizens. I have Indian friends whose parents worked in Kuwait for decades and were never granted citizenship. They hated every minute of it. Salah, if you come legally to the US you are a citizen in 5 years, and your kids are US citizens. Not in Kuwait, you are a foreigner forever. Ask the Palestinians that were expelled in 1991.
Poverty is not exclusive to Islam, but rich moslems funding Madrassas to indoctrinate poor moslems for martyrdom is vintage Islam. Imagine investing in literacy, self sufficiency, respect for women, and universal values. Why when you can focus on the Koran and brew in them the hate to be the cannon fodder of jihad.
David
It seems to me that Noah Feldman has been making this argument for quite a while now. It would be interesting to hear about in which ways, if any, James Rupert's thinking differs from Prof. Feldman's.
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