[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 23 (Thursday, March 3, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H972-H973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     DEMOCRACY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, the terrorists who attacked this country on 
September 11 emerged from part of the world where oppression of popular 
will often finds its outlet in Jihadi extremism and hatred of the West, 
especially the United States.
  Throughout much of the Muslim world, brittle, autocratic regimes 
jealously guard wealth and political power, while the vast majority of 
the citizens languish in poverty. Despite the Arab

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world's vast oil wealth and its rich cultural and intellectual history, 
the region has languished, in large part, because its leaders refused 
to enact the liberalizations necessary to unleash the power of hundreds 
of millions of people.
  After the 9/11 attacks, the President and other senior administration 
officials vowed to ``drain the swamp'' that birthed al Qaeda and other 
radical Islamists. Now, after two wars, thousands of casualties and 
hundreds of billions of dollars, the people of the Arab and greater 
Muslim world are beginning to drain the swamp on their own.
  Last fall, the people of Afghanistan, who only 3 years ago were 
suffering under the medieval yoke of the Taliban, voted in large 
numbers in that country's first presidential election, and later this 
year, they will return to the polls to select a new parliament.
  In early January, the Palestinian people took concrete steps to end 
the Arafat era's corruption and embrace of terrorism and elected 
Mahmoud Abbas as their new president.
  Later that month, in an inspiring acts of collective courage, 
millions of Iraqis defied a vicious insurgency to cast ballots for a 
new national assembly that will draft a constitution for a permanent 
Iraqi government.
  In the past two weeks, we have seen the people of Lebanon respond to 
the savage car bombing that claimed the life of former prime minister 
Rafiq Hariri by peacefully calling for the restoration of Lebanese 
sovereignty. Lebanon's ``cedar revolution'' has already invited 
comparisons with Ukraine's ``orange revolution'' that swept Viktor 
Yuschenko into power last December.
  Today, Saudi Arabians voted in the second of three regional rounds of 
municipal elections, the kingdom's first, and last Sunday President 
Mubarak of Egypt proposed a change to the Egyptian constitution that 
will provide for direct contested elections of president, and he urged 
its quick adoption so that this fall's election would be held under the 
new system.
  Individually these developments vary in significance. The Saudi 
elections, for example, are open only to men, and the Egyptian reforms 
could end up being an effort to fend off rather than promote democracy. 
Collectively, however, these stirrings of democracy could be the long-
awaited beginning of a seismic shift in the politics of the Muslim 
world. If so, our national security will be enhanced.
  For too long, American foreign policy in the Middle East rested on a 
Faustian bargain with the ruling elites. Even as the Middle Eastern 
regimes presided over populations who detested them, successive 
American administrations provided material and political support. As 
long as the rulers guaranteed the continued flow of reasonably priced 
oil, we were willing to ignore the turmoil bubbling beneath them.
  To some extent, this policy was fueled by American policy makers' 
belief that Arab and Islamic societies were somehow incompatible with 
democracy. It was also the product of a genuine fear of what democracy 
in the Arab world would mean for American influence in the region. The 
Iranian revolution of 1979 was seen as a harbinger of what could happen 
throughout the region if American allied regimes loosened their grip.
  After 9/11 and the explosive growth of Islamic radicalism throughout 
the Muslim world, we have come belatedly to the realization that the 
best antidote for terrorism is democracy. Much of the hatred towards 
the United States in the Arab world is a direct consequence of our 
support for despotic regimes.
  The administration and Congress need to continue to push our friends 
in the region to do more to ensure that the tentative steps that we 
have seen do lead to a new birth of freedom in the Muslim world.
  I am particularly concerned about Egypt and its 73 million people. 
Egypt is the intellectual, political and cultural heart of the Arab 
world. It is a long-standing American ally that has played a crucial 
role in the search for peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. But 
even as President Mubarak and the Egyptian government have shown great 
leadership in the quest for peace, they have dragged their heels when 
it comes to the political and economic reform that is crucial if Egypt 
is to remain a regional leader.
  Recently the Egyptian government arrested Ayman Nour, the leader of a 
small pro-democracy party in the Egyptian parliament. Nour's arrest is 
widely seen as politically motivated and precipitated a decision by 
Secretary Rice to cancel a planned trip to Cairo this week.
  I have introduced a resolution calling on Egypt to release Nour and 
embrace the reforms just announced by President Mubarak. As an 
important ally, we must not stand idly by and watch Egypt take steps 
that threaten not only democracy, but our own security.
  Throughout the 20th Century, America fought to expand the reach of 
liberty and democracy, first against Nazism and fascism, and then 
against Soviet communism. Now with the dawn of the 21st Century, we are 
again faced with both the fundamental challenge to our core values and 
the opportunity to bring those values to millions of people. Mr. 
Speaker, we can and must both meet the challenge and seize the 
opportunity.

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