Reform and change in the arab world

N.A.

Description

Political stagnation is an urgent challenge for the Arab world. In a new question and answer, Marwan Muasher identifies the main obstacles to reform in the region and talks about the way forward and the role that the international community can play in promoting reform.. Muasher argues that the Arab world is stuck between two major powers - a well-established political institution lacking checks and balances on the one hand, and Islamist movements that are often hard-line and often committed to political diversity on the other. "There is no third force in the Arab world today, effective, mobilized, peaceful and reformist," he says. Thus, the book in our hands dealt with the issue of reform in the Arab world.

Sujets

• POLITICAL SCIENCE

Informations

• Publié par: Al-Quds Center for Political Studies
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9796500030197
• Langue: English

Extrait

Reform and Change in the Arab World

Conference Proceedings

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................... 5 Part One: An Introduction to Reform .................................................... 7 Opening Speech Oraib Rantawi ..................................................................................................... 8 Director of Al Quds Center for Political Studies - Jordan

Welcome Address Hardy Ostry ...................................................................................................... 10 Regional Representative, Konrad Adenauer Foundation / Amman Office

The Barcelona Process – Ten Years of European Assistance towards Peace, Stability and Freedom in the Mediterranean Ralf Brauksiepe ................................................................................................ 13 Member of the German Parliament and a Spokesperson to the Parliamentarian Group for Development and Cooperation for the Christian Democratic Party and the Christian Social Party - Germany

Keynote Speech Sabri Rbeihat .................................................................................................... 18 Minister for Political Development and Parliamentarian Affairs - Jordan

Part Two: Political Reform - Concept and Prospects for Constructing a Joint Vision ..................................................................... 21

The Problematic Arab Exceptionalism between Illusion and Entitlement Ibrhaim Badran ................................................................................................ 22 Assistant of Philadelphia University / Dean of Faculty Engineering - Jordan

The Arab World - Challenges of Change and Reform George Yitzhak ................................................................................................. 30 Coordinator of the Egyptian Movement for Change - Egypt.

Political Reform - Concept and Prospects for Constructing a Joint Vision for Arab Reformists Haider Ibrahim Ali ........................................................................................... 33 Director for the Center for Sudanese Studies - Sudan

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Ideas on the Issues of Reform and Democratic Change in the Arab World Oraib Rantawi ................................................................................................... 47 Director of Al-Quds Center for Political Studies - Jordan

Part Three: Arab Reform Initiative - Success and Failure ........... 61

Arab Initiatives for Reform: Achievements and Failures in the GCC Countries - Bahrain as a Case Study Abdurrahman Al-Nu’eimi .................................................................................. 62 Head of the board of directors of the National Center for Studies - Bahrain

Part Four: Reform and the Internal-External Debate .................... 81

Reform between Implicit Rejection and Delayed Desire Fuad Ibrahim .................................................................................................... 82 A Writer in the Journal for Gulf Affairs - UK / Saudi Arabia

Political Reform: External - Internal Dichotomy Akram Al-Buni .................................................................................................. 98 A writer and political activist - Syria

Part Five: Political Islam and Democratic ....................................... 107

The Prophet’s Behavior as Leader: The Nature of Political Practice in Islam Sa’d El-Dein Al-Othman ................................................................................ 108 General Secretary of the Development and Justice Party - Morocco

Concepts of Reform for the Shiite Political Islamic Current Ghanim Jawad ................................................................................................ 123 Director of Culture and Human Rights / Al-Khoei Foundation - UK

Islamists and Democracy: Abdel Aziz Al-Khamis ...................................... 139 Editor in Chief of Arabian Observer Mangazine - UK / Iraq

Democracy and the Authority of Religious Text: A Study on the Convergence Between Religious Text and Democratic Condition Mohammed Habash ....................................................................................... 146 Member of the People Council - Syria

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Part Six: Reform and Regional Conflict in the Arab Region .... 157

Reform and Regional Conflicts in the Arab Region Jordan as A Model Muhammad Al-Halayqa .................................................................................. 158 Former deputy Prime Minster of Jordan / Member of Upper House

Reform and Regional Conflicts in the Arab Region - Iraq as a Model Bakhtiar Amin ................................................................................................ 162 Former Minister of Human Rights - Iraq

Part Seven: The Role of Civil Society in Reform and Democracy ........ 165

The Role of Civil Society in the Process of Reform Nafeesah Lahrash ........................................................................................... 166 Head of the Women’s Association in Itisal - Algeria

A Feminist View of Reform and Change in the Arab World Badriyya Al-Awadi ......................................................................................... 170 Professor of International Law and Director of the Arab Regional Center for the Environmental Law - Kuwait

The Role of Non Governmental Organizations in the Reform Process in the Arab World Kamal Bin Younis ........................................................................................... 184 Media Expert - Tunisia

Final Recommendations of the Conference .................................... 193

List of Participants ................................................................................... 196

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Introduction:

This book includes papers presented at the first conference entitled “Network of Reform and Democratic Change in the Arab World” which was jointly organized by Al Quds Center for Political Studies and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Amman, 8-10 December 2005.

Papers were presented by intellectuals and politicians who belong to various offiliation of the reform spectrum. They addressed a wide range of reform con- cepts, its priorities and mechanism and tackle the reform experience and official, civil, Arab, and international initiatives. They also identify the role of “political Islam” in this process.

The idea to convene a conference on reform and to establish a network for Arab reformists came from the need to motivate and speed up the pace of reform that some Arab societies and countries have witnessed. It aims at bypassing the stand- still situation and the stagnation that has dominated the region over the last decades and years thus leading to grave consequences at the level of comprehen- sive human development.

The organizers of the conference considered the series of previous reform ini- tiatives witnessed by the region. Further, they gave political attention, in their actions and deliberations, to the issue of building a “joint vision” of Arab reformists and finding an integrated framework of action. Over three days of seri- ous deliberations, we managed to formulate a joint vision supported with an action mechanism for the network and we have just announced its establishment.

As the reader may note, the themes of the book, which are the themes of the conference itself, have touched on a majority of challenges and topics of debate among the political elite in the Arab World. The first theme “Political Reform: The concept and prospects for reform and change”, “The Issue of Arab exception- alism: Illusion and Entitlement” , “The Arab World and the Reform and Change Challenge”, and “Political Reform: The concept and prospects of building a joint vision of Arab reformists” were addressed.

Under the themes “Initiatives of Arab reforms: Achievements and failures” this book includes studies on the European and American approaches to the reform process. It also presents the official and civil Arab reform initiatives.

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Political Islam and reform is given ample space in this book including different themes such as “The Prophet’s behavior as Leader or the Nature of the Political Practice in Islam”, the “Vocabulary of Reforms in the Shiite political trend”, “Islamists and democracy”, and the “Study of the convergence between the reli- gious texts and democratic conditions”. The book also addresses the “Impact of Regional Conflicts on the Reform Process” touching on models and case studies from Iraq and Palestine. Additionally, the book allocates ample space to dis- cussing the role of the NGOs in promoting and triggering the process of reform and development.

The importance of the book is twofold: firstly, due to its scholarly importance and secondly, it constitutes the intellectual base of the reform and change network in the Arab World. For this reason, this book shall be an indispensable reference for everyone who is interested in the issues of reform and democracy in the region.

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Part One

An Introduction To Reform

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Opening Speech

* Oraib Rantawi

It is such a great honor to stand before you welcoming all of you while we embark on examining the problems of reform and the challenges facing the process of democratic transformation in out countries and societies. I am also full of hope that we will have three productive and interesting days. I thank all of you, particularly those who bear the burden of travel, for you kind response to our invi- tation.

Undoubtedly, some of you had already questioned what would make this con- ference different from scores of other conferences held in out different capitals under the slogan of “reform”, with noble objectives aimed at triggering political, social, and economic transformation in our countries for the better. Frankly, that was the first question that came to our minds before this idea materialized and became a project. After having gone through documents of previous initiatives and conferences, we have assigned two objectives to our initiative that we hope to fulfill:

The first objective aims to construct a joint vision for Arab reformists across different trends and backgrounds that goes beyond the problem of concepts and definitions. It is no longer valid or wise to maintain our old habit in each confer- ence of asking, what do we mean by reform, democracy? Or what kind of free- dom are we aspiring for? Or what pluralism do we wish to have? Additionally, it is unacceptable to maintain the dissonance regarding the oft reiterated and well- known dichotomy such as which should come first, political or economic reform? The external/internal debate, the state-religion relationship etc. Our joint efforts should cease to be confined to the issue from where to start and what to do.

The second objective of this conference is to coordinate and pull all of our efforts in one track in order to exchange experience, ideas, and suggestions. This will allow some of us to support others within the framework of a reformist proj- ect. This should be the case regardless of the different priorities from one state to another or the variety of historical conditions affecting our societies.

Above all, there is the issue of permanence in each step we take. We did not think for a second of an event that ends with the final statement. On the contrary,

* Director of Al-Quds Center for Political Studies - Jordan 8