Saudi Men Like Islamic Fundamentalism, Positions of Privilege
The BBC seems genuinely surprised:
Islamist-backed candidates have taken a commanding lead in Saudi Arabia's first municipal election, in Riyadh. The poll is part of an official plan to bring elements of democracy to the Gulf kingdom.
Of course, it's easy to make fun of this "election" since, ya know, only 400,000 people in the country are actually allowed to vote. But this election presents a pointed case of a much larger problem: if the Bush administration's plan is to use democracy in order to modernize the Arab world (first comes "voting" and only afterwards are they supposed to get to "don't drop houses on gay people for being gay"), what's going to happen if they choose to vote themselves into the 7th century? Are we going to stop them - and if so, how are we going to sell that move either domestically or abroad? After Occupied Japan voted in a government that was too close to the old Emperor, MacArthur anulled the election and told the Japanese public to try again. We need to be willing to do the same in the Middle East.
Islamist-backed candidates have taken a commanding lead in Saudi Arabia's first municipal election, in Riyadh. The poll is part of an official plan to bring elements of democracy to the Gulf kingdom.
Of course, it's easy to make fun of this "election" since, ya know, only 400,000 people in the country are actually allowed to vote. But this election presents a pointed case of a much larger problem: if the Bush administration's plan is to use democracy in order to modernize the Arab world (first comes "voting" and only afterwards are they supposed to get to "don't drop houses on gay people for being gay"), what's going to happen if they choose to vote themselves into the 7th century? Are we going to stop them - and if so, how are we going to sell that move either domestically or abroad? After Occupied Japan voted in a government that was too close to the old Emperor, MacArthur anulled the election and told the Japanese public to try again. We need to be willing to do the same in the Middle East.
