The only democracy that ever worked in the Muslim countries

Submitted by There is NO Santa Claus (United States), Sep 22, 2014 at 07:44

The only democracy that ever worked in the Muslim countries was the Kamalist model. There, the civilians were free to elect a government. But when a government was elected that was too far left or too Islamist, the military would veto the government and overthrow it.

After a cooling off period, the military would then return the country to civilian rule allowing elections with the stern rule: don't go too far left or too far Islamist; we are Turks first and the nation comes first.

It was this kind of nationalism that supported a measure of democracy in Turkey (and to a lesser extent, Pakistan) for years. The Army always had veto power.

Historically, that's the best any Muslim country has done since WWI. The bad side of this is that it falls short of democracy as we know it. The bright side is that it preserved nation-states; the antithesis of imperial Islam.

Unfortunately, in Turkey, the civilian government got the upper hand on the military, thanks no less to George W. Bush and Condi Rice. Imperfect as it is, failure to preserve the Kamalist version of democracy and nationalism has had a detrimental effect on American interests in the region.

Let's hope someone in the State Department has learned a lesson.

Regards,

There is NO Santa Claus (aka TINSC)

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