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- Volume 64, Presented On: September 10, 2012
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From the Panel
For: Reuel Marc gerecht
- The Islamist Road to Democracy
Reuel Marc Gerecht, Wall Street Journal, April 23, 2012Muslims cannot be dragged to an embrace of secularism and the liberal values that spring from it. They have to arrive voluntarily at this understanding. - The Syrian Challenge: This Administration Never Misses an Opportunity to Miss an Opportunity
Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Weekly Standard, July 18, 2011 The Obama Administration lacks the vision and nerve to engage Syria effectively. - The Wave Continues: The People of the Middle East Really Want to Choose Their Leaders
Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Weekly Standard, March 7, 2011The West need not fear the Arab uprisings but embrace and support the democratic ideals that lie at the heart of them. - Democracy in Egypt: Why the West Should Welcome a Political Upheaval in the Middle East
Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Weekly Standard, February 14, 2011The West should allow the Egyptian revolution to continue even if it means the Muslim Brotherhood will rise. - Engaging Fundamentalists
Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Caravan, Hoover Institution, August 11, 2012President Obama should engage the Islamic fundamentalists rising to power. - To Topple Assad, Unleash the CIA
Reuel Marc Gerecht, Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2012If President Obama would allow the CIA to do more to help the Syrian rebels, Turkey and even Iraq's Kurds would do more to help finish off the Assad regime. - The Most Dangerous Man in the World
Reuel March Gerecht, The Weekly Standard, August 20, 2012Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei leads the efforts to advance Iran's nuclear Daweapons programs and if he succeeds could lead his country to war. For: brian katulis
- After Benghazi and Cairo: The New Face of the Middle East?
Brian Katulis, American Enterprise Institute, September 14, 2012 Katulis joined Hisham Melham of Al Arabiya news channel and AEI's Danielle Pletka to discuss the larger implications of Mideast protests, ostensibly over a video produced in the U.S. that negatively portrays the Prophet Mohammad. - Republicans, in Search of a Foreign Policy
Brian Katulis, New York Times, August 31, 2012 Republicans are as divided on foreign policy as they have ever been and Romney is finding it difficult to bridge their divide. - Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa: Ramifications for U.S. Homeland Security
Brian Katulis, Presented to Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, Committee on Homeland Security, April 6, 2011 The greatest opportunity presented by the Arab uprisings is to help key countries transition from the autocratic governments that permitted terrorist threats to fester alongside endemic poverty, weak governance, and corruption towards a more democratic system. - Managing Change in Egypt Was Never Going to Be Easy
Brian Katulis and Peter Juul, Center for American Progress, June 19, 2012The Obama administration should examine all levers of influence and work with other nations to send the message that the political transition must move forward for Egypt’s government to have legitimacy and the capacity to play a constructive leadership role in the Middle Eas - Managing Change in Egypt: Advancing a New U.S. Policy that Balances Regional Security with Support for Egyptian Political and Economic Reforms
Brian Katulis, Center for American Progress, June 2012The United States must maintain a close partnership with Egypt in advancing regional security and support Egypt’s political and economic transitions toward more effective governance and expanded economic opportunities for its citizens. - Support Pluralism in Egypt's Transition: The U.S. Needs to Stay Engaged With All Key Political Actors
Brian Katulis, Ikhwan Web, June 29,2012Given the strong showing by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, it will be important for the United States to maintain engagement going forward, even though the U.S. will not see eye-to-eye with the party on certain issues. - A Syrian Intervention Need Not Be Military-Focused
Brian Katulis, U.S. News, February 14, 2012U.S. intervention in Syria should focus on diplomacy aimed at getting other countries to pull their weight and exert their influence to stop the violence.
Against: daniel pipes
- Arab Spring, Muslim Winter
Daniel Pipes, FrontPageMag.com, December 2, 2011 Despots are usually not a threat to the U.S. whereas elected democrats are our very worst enemies. - Friendless in the Middle East
Daniel Pipes, National Review Online, November 8, 2011 Retrograde and aggressive, Islamism denigrates non-Muslims, oppresses women, and justifies force to spread Muslim rule. Middle Eastern democracy threatens not just the West's security but also its civilization. - Twenty Years of Illusion about Islamism
Daniel Pipes, National Review Online, June 2, 2012A deeply anti-democratic ideology cannot bring on democratization. - Wait Out the War in Syria
Daniel Pipes, The Washington Times, August 21, 2012Sitting out the war in Syria will prove to be a smart move. In addition to the moral benefit of not being accountable for horrors yet to come, staying away permits the West eventually to help its only true friends in Syria, the country's liberals. Against: M. Zuhdi jasser
- The Twin Faces of Islam
M. Zuhdi Jasser, The Arizona Republic, June 23, 2012 No Muslim has an internal Jeffersonian light switch. Before Muslims can plant the seeds of liberalism through Muslim reform, they need to till the fertile soil of change. - Blasphemy Bans Threaten ‘Arab Spring,’ Religious Freedom
M. Zuhdi Jasser and Katrina Lantos Swett, The Hilll, May 16, 2012 Blasphemy bans in the Middle East threaten individual rights to freedom of religion and expression and often have led to human rights abuses. - Democracy and Political Islam Can’t Coexist
Oren Kessler, Jerusalem Post, March 18, 2011President of U.S. Islamic Forum for Democracy tells ‘Post’ American Islamic groups refuse to engage on ’separation of mosque and state.’ - A Letter to the People of Egypt From an American Muslim
M. Zuhdi Jasser, The Blaze, February 16, 2011A secular constitution founded in the inalienable equal rights of every individual, blind to faith and yet under God, is the only path that will fulfill the destiny the Egyptians long for. - The Islamist Threat Inside Our Military
M. Zuhdi Jasser, Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2011There should be a moratorium on granting conscientious objector status to Muslims based on claims of religious faith.
ARTICLES FOR & AGAINST
AGAINST
- Islamists, Dictators, and Bad Choices
Abraham H. Miller, American Thinker, December 11, 2011The Obama administration has jettisoned Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, a compliant dictator who represented our interests, in favor of the chimera of a popular democratic movement that, like the one in Iran in 1979, has proved to be merely a stepping-stone to the rise of the fundamentalists. - Arab Spring Will Just Bring Upon Islamist Dictatorships
Moshe Arens, Haaretz, November 22, 2011The toppling of the Arab dictators was inevitable; unfortunately, however, just as inevitable is what is going to follow their overthrow. - Dangerous Illusions About Islamism
Robert R. Reilly, Washington Times, April 20, 2012The idea that an Islamist victory will lead to democracy is misguided and dangerous. - The Arab Winter Approaches
Bruce Thornton, Defining Ideas, Hoover Institution, November 22, 2011Turkish Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan once said, ‘Democracy is like a train. We shall get out when we arrive at the station we want.’ As we survey the consequences of the Arab Spring, it seems more likely that the 'station' will not be one that we, in the West, will want.
FOR
- Egypt Elections: Sharia Can Support Democracy
Mahmood Delkhasteh and Hassan Rezaei , Christian Science Monitor, May 23, 2012In Egypt elections for president today, the role of Islam in government is a big question. But a freedom-based interpretation of sharia can support democracy in the Arab world. Such a form of sharia in the early stages of the Iran Revolution set a precedent – before it was snuffed out. - Learning to Live With the Islamist Winter
Tamara Cofman Wittes, Foreign Policy, July 19, 2012The fact that Islamists' real political success has yet to be tested underscores how important it is to refrain from declaring either triumph or disaster based on any given incremental development in a tortuously complex process that is ultimately about political bargaining. - Democratic Muslims? Why Not?
Haroon Siddiqui, The Daily Star, June 9, 2012Islam is compatible with democracy and liberalism. - Alarmism on Islamism
Paul Pillar, National Interest, December 4, 2011Democratization in the Arab world certainly is fragile and can stumble badly in the months and years ahead. Islamist parties will be in the thick of any such bad news—not because they are Islamist, but because their political success has put them in that position.
