Islam and Democratization in Asia By Shiping Hua

Chapter 1

Islamic Governance and Democracy

M. A. Muqtedar Khan

In 2005 it seemed as if democracy had finally arrived in the Middle East. Iraqis and Afghans had voted in large numbers, providing hope that democratic regimes introduced by the American occupation forces would take root. Elections had returned to Saudi Arabia after nearly four decades. Large pro-democracy rallies in Beirut were raising the vision of an Eastern European–style democratic wave in the Middle East. There were constitutional changes taking place in the Gulf and for a brief historical moment it appeared that the American policy of externally stimulated democratic change might actually work.

But subsequent events have underscored that things are never so simple in the Middle East. Political realities in the region come in multiple layers of complexity. The subsequent retreat of democracy across the Middle East and the reemergence of the trio of authoritarian regimes—Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia—in the form of “allies of stability”