Filiz Otucu, PhD
October, 2013
Interview with Plymouth Magazine
Excerpts
Plymouth Magazine (PM): If
you would want us to pay attention to one thing about our understanding of the
Middle East, what would that be?
Filiz Otucu (FO): We
need to pay attention to our misperceptions, be open-minded and understand
where the other person is coming from. A big part of understanding is becoming
aware of our stereotypes—not to put them aside, which is very difficult—but to
be aware of our biases and start questioning. A simple example: many of us
think “jihad” means “holy war.” But for 99.9 percent of Muslims jihad is an
inner struggle to be a good Muslim, to be a good person.
We
get most of what we know from the media, but for them it is about rating
points. If they focus on what moderates are talking about and what Islam is about,
how many people will listen? But if the
story is about a bombing, we watch. Media is a part of our culture, and we fall
prey to that influence (this is what we demand from media though).
PM: How can we deal
with anti-American rhetoric?
FO: It
is true, there is an anti-American rhetoric. However, we need to make this
distinction: with the exception of a very small group of extremists, the big
majority of Middle Easterners are not against Americans. They are only critical
of American foreign policy decisions because they pay the price for them. When
the West gets involved militarily, even if it is not intentional, civilians
often die. Collateral damage happens, but the majority of these civilians are
innocent people and somebody’s loved one. “Oops, I’m sorry” does not cut it.
If you travel to these countries you
will feel comfortable. You can talk to people and they will open their homes to
you. I condemn any type of violence, I definitely condemn all forms of
terrorism. But when your loved ones suffers or die because of sanctions or
military attacks and your life becomes so desperate, you are more inclined to
listen to the extremists and be manipulated. We have to be careful about what
we are doing and how it affects people’s lives—the consequences of our actions.
We should not give extremist leaders reason to get better at their propaganda
and win people over.
PM: How can the U.S.
promote democracy in the Middle East?
FO: There
is a debate about whether Islam is
compatible with democracy. Increasingly, Muslims themselves are saying “yes”
and Islamic political movements and parties are deciding to take part in
elections whenever possible. Terminology matters. You cannot sell Western
liberal democracy to many Muslims because Muslims associate it with Western
colonialism. But some are embracing essentials like human rights, elections and
the rule of law. Actually, these and citizens’ control over the executive are
consistent with the Islamic concepts of ijma (consensus) and shura
(consultation).
The Islamic
democratic movement is a work in progress, slowly taking place. Indigenous
calls for democratic reforms are being heard in almost every part of the Muslim
world. Civil society leaders and human rights groups in these societies are
challenging the autocratic status quo. Young Muslims, in particular, want to be
in charge of their lives and see that democracy can shield the Islamic
community from autocrats.
True, many of these
countries have been ruled by dictators, and don’t have democratic histories.
Unfortunately, pro-Western Arab and Muslim dictators, not necessarily Islamic
activists, have been blocking any real democratic opening. Saying that, transition
requires much more than just elections. There are no strong constitutions, no
checks and balances, no freedom of speech, or assembly, so, how in these
circumstances can the opposition get strong enough to challenge the leadership
meaningfully? After the election, the government controls everything, and they
don’t allow the opposition to flourish. We can help civil society to
develop. However, whatever type of
democracy they are going to attain should come from the people.
We
also must look at the history. Middle Easterners are quite critical of us
saying, “look, we didn’t transition to democracy partially because of you. You
kept supporting our dictators so every time signs of the development of a civil
society appeared, it was crushed.” The bottom line is, we protect our own
national interests. When Islamists win an election, and we don’t like that, we end
up supporting the existing regime. We can’t have it both ways. Let’s briefly
look at the democratization experience in that region:
The
first major steps towards democratization occurred in Iran in 1953 when
Mosaddegh was elected. He started talking about the nationalization of oil, and
the West got scared. The CIA got involved and Mosaddegh was kicked out and a
brutal regime of Shah Reza Pahlavi came back and we supported his regime. Now,
when we say, “we want democracy in the Middle East,” they respond, “We had it
and you destroyed it. You took it away as soon as it got started because it
didn’t work out for you.”
The
next happened in Algeria in the early 1990s.
They had a democratic election. There were supposed to be two rounds of
elections. During the first round it became very clear that the Islamists were
going to win, so they cancelled the second round and the military took control
and the West was supportive of this. The result was civil war.
In
2006 we wanted democracy in Palestine. They held fair democratic elections and
Hamas won. We cut funding. The result was a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Now we
see it in Egypt. Morsi was elected democratically (what he did afterward is
another story). If we accept/support regimes that suppress democratic Islamist
movements, block these movements’ nonviolent participation in the system, I am
very worried that they will see violence as the only option to be heard.
Supporting democratization is not about
elections, but rather how we can help liberalization of these societies. The
West can play a role by not supporting dictatorships, and by pressuring
authoritarian regimes when they attack their own people. We can exert pressure
for gradual reforms. The Middle Eastern countries need a strong civil society
to produce leaders and mobilize the public around democratic movement.
Democratization should come from both above and below. We can help civil
society organizations to gain strength, making it bottom up, people demanding
those liberties. We can pressure the leadership to allow civil liberties, to
include them in the constitution and to guard them very dearly. Then, real
democracy can flourish in the Middle East.
* * *
Karl Marx, 1818–1883...
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