Democracy, Islamic Law Don't Mix, Iraqi Official Says

By Aussiegirl

The most pertinent quote from the article: Democracy is "anti-Islam," Tefft added. So whom are we going to believe, Bush or Iyad Jamal Al-Din and Bruce Trefft? And how do we proceed, if this final quote is true:Those Arab states, he said, "would prefer a stupid and reckless dictator like Saddam to a democratic regime in Iraq, because the epidemic of democracy and the winds of freedom will reach them, whether they like it or not?

Democracy, Islamic Law Don't Mix, Iraqi Official Says -- 04/10/2006

Despite President Bush's insistence that the Iraqi "people want there to be a democracy," a pro-American member of Iraq's new parliament claims there is "no relationship between Islam and democracy."

Islamic or "sharia" law has "nothing to do with democracy or human rights," according to Iyad Jamal Al-Din, and mixing Islam and democracy "is like mixing Marxists and capitalists."

[...] But there are many skeptics, including Bruce Tefft, a former CIA employee and Middle East expert who currently serves as the director of threat assessment for CRA, a firm assisting federal, state and local officials to prevent terrorism and manage emergencies.

"There's no way you can impose western culture and democracy and Judeo-Christian ethics on a Muslim community to start with," Tefft told Cybercast News Service. "The best that you can hope for is that they've got somebody in there that's not a radical nut like the president of Iran, or Saddam Hussein, or something like that."

Tefft said some Iraqi Shi'ites are cooperating with the U.S. in order to hasten the withdrawal of American military forces. But the cooperation is "not because they believe in democracy, because they don't," he said. Democracy is "anti-Islam," Tefft added.

[...] "No Muslim is in favor of anything the U.S. is going to do, except we did conveniently remove Saddam Hussein, who was a nuisance to them and a burden to them and an enemy to them," Tefft said. However, "that didn't make [Muslims] our friends,"

Those Arab states, he said, "would prefer a stupid and reckless dictator like Saddam to a democratic regime in Iraq, because the epidemic of democracy and the winds of freedom will reach them, whether they like it or not."