Last month a group of Arab intellectuals released
their third report in an unprecedented study of the many
failures--economic, social, and political--that plague the world's
Arab states. The latest report, "Towards Freedom in the Arab
World," endorses democracy and laments the "acute deficit of
freedom and good governance" in Muslim countries. Its authors are
getting high marks from the Bush administration. Too bad they've
largely ignored the most basic freedom under any democratic
government: the guarantee of religious liberty.
Commissioned by the United Nations, the Arab Human Development
Report has lots to say about the problems of autocratic rulers,
bogus elections, restrictions on the media, and women's
second-string rights. It lays out seven nonnegotiable guarantees
for the transition to democracy, including the right to vote, the
freedom to join organizations, and the right of political leaders
to campaign. And of course it's true that these elementary rights
are still hard to come by in the Arab world: In Egypt, political
parties can't be established without government consent. Jordan
controls most media outlets and heavily restricts freedom of
assembly. In Algeria, women are treated as minors under the legal
guardianship of their husbands.
But what the report virtually ignores is the centrality of
religious freedom among the bedrock democratic rights. That
omission troubles reformers such as Radwan Masmoudi, president of
the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy.
"Lack of freedom in Muslim countries is stifling societies," he
says. "The solution is to allow liberal Islam to grow, which means
radically expanding freedom of the press, freedom of religion,
freedom of thought, and freedom to form independent
organizations."
True, the report's authors endorse the idea of an independent civil
society, where groups may criticize government and offer
alternative policies. This civic realm, they say, "must be
absolutely free from control." They also insist that government
should "protect the right of people and groups not only to worship
as they wish, in private; but also to promote their values publicly
in civil society." There's even frank talk about the way political
leaders have "selectively appropriated Islam" to justify oppressive
policies.
Yet these themes occupy just a few pages in the 248-page report
(criticism of the U.S. occupation in Iraq, for example, gets much
more attention). Nowhere is there a direct challenge to the extreme
interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, current in states such as
Iran, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia. Nowhere do the authors address the
problem of the second-class status of religious minorities
throughout the Middle East.
The same omission marked a recent panel discussion of the U.N.
report at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Rima
Khalaf Hunaidi, the U.N. assistant secretary general who chairs the
group's advisory board, called for "comprehensive reforms" of
political and economic systems in Arab countries. But she spent
almost as much time complaining about Israel's treatment of
Palestinians. None of the four panel members tackled the dearth of
religious freedom under Muslim rule.
Saudi Arabia is perhaps the worst offender. Under its Wahhabi
version of sharia, criticism of the government, Islam, or the
ruling family is forbidden. Even on paper, there is no freedom of
religion: The law requires that all citizens be Muslims.
Non-Muslims officially may worship in private, but fear arrest and
persecution. Even Sunni and Shia Muslim communities with long
histories in Arabia are treated with contempt.
In Sudan, the Arab regime has waged a ruthless 20-year campaign
against Christians and animists in the south; more recently it has
helped renegade militias commit genocide against African Muslims in
the west. In Egypt--despite a government-controlled press drenched
in anti-Semitism--religious minorities generally fare better. One
reason for this is the social strength of the Coptic Christian
community, which dates back to New Testament times and now numbers
at least five million, making it the largest Christian community in
the Middle East. Still, converts to Christianity have been tortured
by security officials.
Indeed, apostasy laws, which criminalize conversion out of Islam,
remain a grave matter in the Muslim world. In Saudi Arabia, any
convert from Islam faces a death penalty. Nigeria, despite its
constitution, has approved new sharia laws that authorize the
killing of apostates. When severe legal penalties are lacking, a
culture of threat and persecution often stands in the gap. Even in
states with constitutional protections for religious minorities,
these minorities' "dhimmi" status denies them a range of civil and
political rights--from eligibility for employment in government
posts to rights of redress in state-run courts.
"Two distinct historical experiences characterize the native
Christian communities of the Middle East and Arab world: the dhimmi
and the free," writes Habib Malik, a professor and human rights
expert at the Lebanese American University. "Over 90 percent of the
10 million or so Christians of Arab lands are dhimmis and have
never known a free and equal and dignified existence." The same
might be said of minority Muslim groups living under Islamic
governments, whether Sufis in Iran or Ahmadis in Pakistan.
Nevertheless, most Islamic leaders and institutions--and now the
scholars of the Arab Human Development Report--seem to have sworn
an oath of silence about the problem of religious oppression,
especially the plight of Muslims who challenge state orthodoxy on
religious grounds. The lack of religious liberty prevents debate
over the meaning of Islamic texts--a crucial step in offering a
progressive interpretation of Islam. For all the talk of a "freedom
deficit," the authors of the U.N. report fail to recognize the
unique status of religious expression. They thus see no connection
between the denial of religious rights and the political and
economic stagnation of most of the world's 22 Arab states. Their
two previous reports, which examined economic and educational
issues, were similarly silent on the point.
"Freedom of religion is the only way to build a strong, moral
society," says Radwan Masmoudi, "where people can deal with each
other with dignity, respect, trust, and fairness." Progressive
thinkers such as Masmoudi advocate "liberal Islam," which considers
freedom of conscience a sacred right as well as a central
democratic doctrine. They argue that Muslims must recover the
Koranic teaching that human beings are created free, and that
violations of basic liberties--including freedom of
worship--contradict human nature and the will of God.
A hopeful example is that of Lebanon, where there is no state
religion and the constitution protects religious expression.
Moreover, the recent withdrawal of Syrian troops could help
liberalize Lebanon's struggling democracy. Though Muslims now make
up about 70 percent of the population, the country is religiously
diverse: Muslim groups share power with the historically
influential Maronite Christians, and there are significant numbers
of Greek Orthodox, Copts, Assyrians, and Baptists. A State
Department report from 2002 noted that Lebanon's "religious
pluralism and climate of religious freedom have attracted many
persons fleeing alleged religious mistreatment and discrimination
in neighboring states."
The Arab world needs a prosperous, democratic state that respects
its religious diversity--perhaps a Muslim equivalent of the
Pennsylvania colony, circa 1774, that so impressed James Madison.
Writing to his friend William Bradford, Madison praised the
connection between democratic stability and religious pluralism
that was missing in his native Virginia. "You are happy in dwelling
in a Land where those inestimable privileges are fully enjoyed and
the public has long felt the good effects of their religious as
well as Civil Liberty," he wrote. "Religious bondage shackles and
debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble
enterprise."
That seems an apt warning for political reformers in the Arab
world. For until the culture of religious repression is decisively
challenged, it's hard to imagine an "Arab spring" that would
survive the summer heat of the dictators and theocrats in
waiting.
Mr. Loconte is a
research fellow in religion at the Heritage Foundation and
editor of "The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront
Hitler's Gathering Storm" (Rowman & Littlefield). Grace Smith
provided research support for this article.
First Appeared in the Weekly Standard