Even as the western and Indian media go ecstatic over the new democratic upsurges in the Arab world, something else has begun to happen. The Tunisian ‘virus’ that spread rapidly via Egypt, is now finding newer and equally hospital bodies elsewhere – that is to say, bodies made vulnerable by the years of plunder by corporate capital. Now, what precisely, is the connection between corporate capital and the Arab ‘jasmine revolutions’? On the face of it, nothing. However, as the state legislature in Wisconsin sat considering a bill to severely curb state workers’ rights of collective bargaining a few days ago, thousands of state employees descended on the building, virtually occupying it.
And as protests against Republican Governor Scott Walker’s assault on collective bargaining rights entered the fifth day, the support for the movement has begun to expand. Demonstrators were joined by union supporters from Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as national union leaders and civil rights advocate the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
An interesting article by Dan La Botz, “A New American Workers’ Movement Has Begun“, underlines the connections of the ongoing struggle in Wisconsin with the Arab virus!
One of the threads that connects the Arab situation with the US and indeed, the Indian, is really the way the conventional levels of politics, especially the political parties, have ceased to represent anything (or anybody) except the most banal common sense produced by neo-liberalism. They have all begun to repeat these so-called ‘economic truths’ as though they refer to some God-given or natural tendency which can only be complied with. We, in India, have also seen how over the past couple of decades, all parties and state governments have begun to look more and more like each other, speak the same language and deal with the peasants and workers in the same manner. And so it seems is the case elsewhere, in other parts of the world. Thus, says La Botz: “Today we in the labor movement are at a turning point. American employers, political parties, and government at all levels have decided that the time has come to move against what is the last bulwark of American unionism: the public employee unions.”
Despite attempts to divide the workers by exempting the firefighters from the proposed draconian law, here are the firefighters joining in, in support of the other Wisconsin workers.
In the meanwhile, even as the demonstrations reached their peak in Egypt around the end of January, another connection seems to have emerged into view. Those living in India and depending on news dished out by the slavish Indian media, of course, had no inkling of the fact that right through November and December 2010, there had been major anti-fee hike struggles across the cities of Europe – but especially in British. In Britain, the struggles were particularly militant as the new fee-hike was so steep – from an annual of 3, 290 UK pounds to 9, 500 UK pounds – students could be practically be repaying education loans all their lives! Once the proposals for fee-hike were passed, there was a slump in the movement as many participants had begun to feel that they had lost. But in the wake of the Arab upsurge there has been a huge revival of militant demonstrations in England. On the 29th of January, there were demonstrations in major cities across England, London and Manchester in particular. Battling the police, the demonstrators converged actually converged (see video in the report on England above), outside the Egyptian embassy, with cries of ‘Revolution!’, ‘Revolution!’.
And while we are at it, how can we forget that the Tunisian/Arab virus has also infected China, whose regime has of course, reacted with characteristic brutality. Nonetheless, the effect of what now seems to be a worldwide urge to fight back seems to be there.
Where all these movements and struggles will eventually go, we do not know. But one thing is certain. No struggle is fought in vain. Its memories, its lessons, its strengths and weaknesses – all become part of a larger storehouse of experience and inspiration; they continue to animate the imagination of future struggles.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
This article did not delve into the details of the revolution that is taking place in the arab world, nor its characteristics. The arab revolution has no parallel in the history and to bring Wiscosin as its extension looks to be far-fetched.
Ofcourse, the revolution spreading across the middle eastern countries has caught attention of many socio-political analysts. It is going to be a matter of academic studies in the near future. History has seen a lot of revolutions that were bloody in nature. Usually revolution takes birth at the graveyard of the millions of people and often it eats its own off-springs. The distinctive feature of the middle eastern revolution is that it is peaceful and came along with prayers. Paradoxically, middle eastern people are depicted by the stereotype western media so rude and violent. So, it was astonishing to observe a full fledged revolution live in front of the cameras that was unfolding peacefully with prayers. It helped to show the true and peaceful face of Islam, the peace, and Muslims whose salutation is for peace and whose five times a day prayers are embedded with yearning and invocation for peace . What the world saw in Liberation square and is seeing in Green Square and Pearl Square is a unique blend of prayer and protest as a symbolic assimilation of soul and soil part of human being. The Islamic prayer itself is a symbolic representation of liberation from all forces when one who prostrate proclaims that he will not bow except in front of the Creator and refuses and defies to be kowtowed by any and all tyrants. It again helped us to understand the ability of Islam to represent the broad spectrum of the society, regardless of their religion. It exemplified and amplified the potentiality of Friday and Islam’s organizational capability. Same potentiality lies in other Islamic observation like Hajj also when 3 million people returns to every nook and corner of the world absorbing the revolutionary spirit after simultaneous sacrificing of the most valued and stoning of the symbolic devils continuously for three days. Those revolutions showed again to the world the actual culprits behind the violence in the middle eastern politics. It is not Islam or Islamists. Rather, the most violent, ruthless and unscrupulous elements of the middle eastern politics is the autocrats and their security apparatus with the active, covert and overt support of the secular western powers, their real masters. A lot of socio-political analysis have been done in this respect. Nonetheless, an analysis delving into the undercurrents of the revolution that is spreading all over middle east seems to have its own relevance. The social net working has and had a role in this revolution just like the audio cassette (the most modern at that time) had a role to play in the Iranian revolution that took place in 1979. Unlike other revolutions, the underlying characteristic of these revolutions is the fact that it is peaceful with minimal collateral damages. Social networking devoid of an intelligent command and control cannot achieve it. The people were able to sustain the tempo of the revolution for weeks. It took months in Tunisia, 18 days in Egypt. It is still going on in Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya. (Most of the wives of the autocrats in these countries are westerners and the dictatorial rulers were western educated. Who knows if some of them were part of the net of espionage spread by the western countries to intervene into the affairs of the middle eastern countries in an intelligent way- Lack of democracy and kind dynastic autocracy gives them ample space for it. As far as India is concerned, dynastic democracy embodied by National Congress party also gives ample opportunity for the western powers to spread their network of espionage into India as well) . This would not have been able if there was no leadership that worked behind the curtain. The protesters, most of them youths, did not get provoked or exasperated even when got instigated and insinuated by the plain cloth police and security forces. This also shows how organized and disciplined they were. They had made arrangements for distribution of food and drinks for those who had camped in Thahreer Square for 18 days. This wouldn’t have been possible if there was no planning behind it. There were hundreds of doctors in the square from the opposition group who were busy in treating the people. There were arrangements to perform time-bound Islamic prayers. They even had made arrangements to clean the venues of the protests…. Who was the organizers of this mass protests was clear when they invited Al-Qardawi to deliver the Friday sermon to celebrate the victory which was heard all over the world including the three million gathered in Thahreer Sqaure. The organizers were intelligent enough not to claim the credit. They wanted it to be from the people and for the people. They set some goals and focused on it. They wanted to have a free and fair election after revolution so that they can prove their strength in the court of the people. They wanted release of the prisoners, most of whom belonged to the same opposition itself. They wanted constitutional change that will allow the same opposition to actively participate in the election. Actually, Husni Mubarak and his National “Democratic” party made a grossly mistaken calculation when they rigged the “parliamentary” election to the extent that it forced the strongest opposition to sit in the Tahreer Square instead of sitting idle inside the parliament. Egyptian revolution actually started on that day itself when Husni Mubarak and his NDP had denied the brotherhood even a single seat in the parliament by blatant rigging of the so called election using thuggery, intimidation and hooliganism .
As Obama said, history was unfolding in itself. History has a lot of curves and zigzags. Though it has got a kind of spontaneity, we sometimes feel events unpredicted when we see Moses born in the castle of Pharaoh. History is two-dimensional. It creates an environment for change and the change itself unfolds into the history. One of the greatest lessons of history is that occasion brings forth its own men. From Quranic perspective this has to happen , when a state apparatus oppresses and suppresses its own peoples rights and freedom. For, according to Quran , obedience to a repressive and oppressive government and ruler constitutes an act of grave sin and immorality ( Fisq) near God. “The ruler made silly of his people and they obeyed him. They were ever a people who were immoral (Fasiquoon)” (43:52). In these kind of situations, Quran wants change to be bottom-up. It says, “ Allah will never change a society until they change their lots themselves” (43:52, 13-11,8:53). These verses clearly make it evident that the people are the only legitimate fountain of power. Again Quran says, God intends to bless and do favor to those who are weak and oppresses in their land, and to make them rulers and to make them inheritors” (28:5). Quran even asks what is wrong with the people not to fight in the cause of Allah, and for those weak, ill-treated and oppressed” (4:75). As per Quran, the par of the mission of the prophet itself was “ to relieve the people of their burden and shackles which were upon them” ( &:157). The most snobbish, stupid, obsequious, irrelevant and dangerous argument that the Muslims belonging to neo-salafistic school of thought tried to inculcate in the minds of masses to depoliticize them to the wishes of the rulers and their western masters was that Muslims need not work for change of government since power is given by Allah to whom He intends. If it was the case, we wouldn’t have required to work for livelihood since it is given by Allah to whom He intends. Again we need not covey the message of Islam to any since guidance is given by Allah to whom He intends… It seems the Muslim masses have dumped this irrational argument into dustbin of history. Events are part of an irresistible stream of history created by the collective human efforts and endeavors. Individuals is only part of the current of events; they only float upon it and steer. Revolution is both the work of men and a historical process. Moreover, revolutions are the result of deep-rooted and slowly evolving political and social malfunctions, anomalies and malformations rather than the sudden outbreak that they appear to be on the surface as media has tried to depict Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. Suicide committal of 26 year old Mohammad Bouazzi of Tunisia and usage of twitter and face book by Google Marketing Manager W ale Ghoneim of Egypt are only the triggering point of the revolutions just like murder of Austrian Prince by a Serb Racist in the Bosnian capital was the triggering point of WWII. Internet along with its own off-springs of social network of Facebook and Twitter were the tools that were used to organize the already angry, disgruntled and discontented people just like audio cassettes was used by Ayotallah Khomeni in Iranian Revolution of 1979.
Actually, as Obama himself had said history is unfolding in itself in the middle east. This unfolding is the mother of all wake-up calls to all including America, the so called apostle of democracy and human rights, who has been supporting and using the middle eastern autocrats and despots as its puppets and stooges. As Thomas L. Freidman wrote in New York Times (23.2.2011), America (and Europe and Asia) had treated the Middle East as if it were just a collection of big gas stations: Saudi station, Iran station, Kuwait station, Bahrain station, Egypt station, Libya station, Iraq station, United Arab Emirates station, etc. Their message to the region has been very consistent: “Guys (it was only guys we spoke with), here’s the deal. Keep your pumps open, your oil prices low, don’t bother the Israelis too much and, as far as we’re concerned, you can do whatever you want out back. You can deprive your people of whatever civil rights you like. You can engage in however much corruption you like. You can preach whatever intolerance from your mosques that you like. You can print whatever conspiracy theories about us in your newspapers that you like. You can keep your women as illiterate as you like. You can create whatever vast welfare-state economies, without any innovative capacity, that you like. You can under-educate your youth as much as you like. Just keep your pumps open, your oil prices low, don’t hassle the Jews too much — and you can do whatever you want out back.” This is among other major factors what has impeded middle eastern countries from keeping abreast of the time and history for the last many decades and to be ruled for decades by the same kings and dictators with no vision and/or value. Now it seems religion, economy and politics have started to work together in the hearts and minds of the masses, once considered the most politically illiterate among all in this world, to force the change they have been craving for secretly and silently. A change that will strengthen the frail institutions, will boost and bolster the presence of civil society that is virtually scant or absent right now and rejuvenate a culture of true and humane Islamic traditions and innovation . This change has a strenuous, laborious and demanding work to carry out in the near future and build almost from the scratches of what the United Nations’ Arab Human Development Report 2002 had said, the other side of vanity of dictatorial “stability” in which the middle eastern societies got refrigerated. A summary of the report was published in Middle East Quarterly in the Fall of 2002. The modern middle eastern societies are medieval in nature and suffers from the huge deficits of education, freedom and empowerment. The GDP of the entire Arab world combined was less than that of Spain. Per capita expenditure on education in Arab countries dropped from 20 percent of that in industrialized countries in 1980 to 10 percent in the mid-1990s. In terms of the number of scientific papers per unit of population, the average output of the Arab world per million inhabitants was roughly 2 percent of that of an industrialized country. Those who live in the GCC countries can easily feel it well. Nothing comes from Egypt, the largest and the most “progressive” country of the Middle east to GCC except agricultural products onion, Bean (Fool) and Pomegranate while you can seem Turkish alternatives for all kinds of industrial products. Egypt and Turkey are similar in size both geographically and demographically. Both have got a lot of rich cultural and historical similarities. Though in different continents, both are on either side of Mediterranean. Only difference is Turkish GDP under Rajab Tayyeb Egrogan is four times bigger than that of Egypt under Mubarak. This also proves the extent of the hamstring the autocracy and despotism can put on the progress and prosperity of the nation. From socio-economic perspective, autocracy is a political chain that stifles and suffocates, stings and stinks . It must be broken by the collective will of the people. It is a kind of slavery imposed upon people from which people need to be liberated . Actually, this change that takes place in the middle east might require to re-invent the socio-political content of Islam itself, in its modern context, of which the middle eastern history tells us in nutshell that they progressed materially and spiritually and were front runners of the history to the extent they were associated with Islam’s socio-political teachings and precepts. The middle eastern Muslims were pushed back to the backyard of the history to the extent they withdrew from those teachings and precepts.
The revolution usually is motivated by an ideology expounded by the intelligentsia . Ideology creates desire for total change. Unjust, iniquitous and decomposed social structure sets the atmosphere for the change and waits for a trigger. Revolution become improbable or culminates easily into chaos in the absence of a true and mature leadership. One of the greatest lessons of history is that ‘occasion brings forth its men. The state structure in its present form in all middle eastern countries are unstable and wobbly, shaky and unsteady in the extreme and the ill-constructed governmental structure does not conform to the wishes and desires of the people. The occupants of the corridors of power do not give a hoot or toot about the wellbeing of their citizens. The state seems to be failing in its primary responsibility of taking care of citizens basic needs and providing protection to their life and property. Rather, it seems to be strangulating the personal freedom of the people given by God and trampling it under its feet. The people at the helm of affairs have come to this position by a strange concourse of events, entirely untrained in the arts of governance. It is not the matter of merit, rather it is matter of manipulation , cronyism and family connection with echelon. They possess none of the masterful qualities necessary for leadership. Most of them are unintelligent and it has unbridgeable gulf to the daunting challenges that middle eastern countries face in this complex modern world. They are lacking in both knowledge to deal the complexities of the modern governance and wisdom, in breadth of judgment. They are out of touch with their own people and do not understand the temperament of the people or the need of the times. Born to the purples with silver spoons in their mouth, their outlook upon life does not transcend that of the echelons and the privileged class to which they belong. Their medieval feudal mindset blocks any attempt aimed at change in the status-quo and empowerment of people. The glaring incidents of looting, plundering and mob-lynching in the presence, and sometimes under the patronage, of law-enforcement authorities amply demonstrate the complete breakdown of the system of justice. The political parties, except that of banned Islamists belonging to Brotherhood and its offshoots, are too disorganized and too personality-centered carrying no credibility among the people.
The social organization of almost all middle eastern countries are far from satisfactory. An outdated social structure with glaring economic disparity among the different layers of social classes devoid of freedom of expression has already sowed the seeds of widespread resentment amongst the disadvantaged segments of the society against the status-quo. The privileged orders are favored in a number of ways. Cronyism, nepotism and favoritism has perpetuated a kind of social fragmentation and disintegration. The seething anger and incensed discontent has driven common people to the brink of committing suicide — the only short-cut way to escape the pangs of poverty and ignominy of unemployment as we have seen it repeatedly in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Paradoxically the governmental measures instead of helping to mitigate the sufferings of the down-trodden and the middle class, makes the social fissures deeper and more profound. One of the most adverse, sinister and insidious effects of unnatural social disparity is that it has rendered possible an unrestrained n loathsome tyranny by a minority over a majority quite as complete as any tyranny of the mediaeval age could be. The inequitable and unjust land ownership in terms of neo-feudalism has become a stumbling block in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. The surging wave of inflation coupled with lack of other economic opportunities has broken backs of the salaried class as well as daily wage-earners. Now, Tunisia and Egyptian revolutions with minimal collateral damages has changed the commonplace view that revolution is undesirable and has brought a kind of hope among the masses. History has made them aware of and become vigilant so as not to allow another oppressor to replace the current one. The people are aware of the fact that the root cause of the reign of terror in Yemen and other countries is CIA drones and missiles, as Wikileaks has amply shown, and is mostly unleashed by the foreign forces as a result of the license given to them by monarchial, autocratic and democratic dynasties in its different guises in their own and neighboring countries to stall the tide of imminent revolution. Now history is repeating itself by giving birth to Moses in the cradle of Farowa and the pre-emptive tactics adopted by the colonial powers are boomeranging. People realizes that no amount of patching up and renovating, other than complete and total revolution, could make the present petrified and fossilized system in the middle eastern countries any tolerable and a total re-organization of the societies as needed. The only media that has played its role in exposing the anomalous state structure compelling the people to think about the causes of their miserable lot in this respect is Al-Jazeera with its widespread reach across the middle east. Today the middle eastern countries have reached a point to debottleneck the stalemate where those responsible for bringing about change are apathetic and reluctant while masses, clamoring for change and reform, have crossed the barrier of fear and regained their true power to effect the changes they want. Thus the situation in all middle eastern countries including GCC is ripe for revolution which is waiting for trigger and may spring even from a slight occasion which will have domino effect as it is proving from Tunisia to Egypt and Bahrain to Libiya. Today, the middle eastern countries stands in dire need of a new divine (7:172, 33:72) social contract as espoused in Quran which must be premised on the principles that the people are the only legitimate fountain of power (43:52, 13-11,8:53) .
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The union thuggery that sank Greece and is sinking much of Europe is spreading its wings across the land in the USSA (United Socialist States of America) under a sympathetic regime of the grand Community Organizer. The tea party victory of November was a silver lining, but maybe a bit too little, too late. It’s good to apprise oneself of what this thing ‘collective bargaining’ is all about. Mark Steyn says:
The President of Greece warned last night that his country stood on the brink of the abyss after three people were killed when an anti-government mob set fire to the Athens bank where they worked.
The Times managed to get the salient feature of the story entirely wrong. They were not an “anti-government” mob, but a government mob, a mob of “public servants” objecting to austerity measures that would end, for example, the tradition of 14 monthly paychecks per annum. You read that right: the Greek public sector cannot be bound by anything so humdrum as temporal reality. So, when it was mooted that the “workers” might henceforth receive a mere 12 monthly paychecks per annum, they rioted. Their hapless victims – a man and two women – were a trio of clerks trapped in a bank when the mob set it alight and then obstructed emergency crews attempting to rescue them.
You don’t have to go to Athens to find “public servants” happy to take it out on the public. In Madison, politicized doctors provide fake sick notes for politicized teachers to skip class. In New York’s Christmas snowstorm, Sanitation Department plough drivers are unable to clear the streets, with fatal consequences for some residents. On the other hand, they did manage to clear the snow from outside the Staten Island home of Sanitation Dept head honcho John Doherty, while leaving all surrounding streets pristinely clogged. Three hundred Sanitation Department workers have salaries of over $100,000 per year. In retirement, you get a pension of 66 grand per annum plus excellent health benefits, all inflation proofed.
That’s what “collective bargaining” is about: It enables unions rather than citizens to set the price of government. It is, thus, a direct assault on republican democracy, and it needs to be destroyed. Unlovely as they are, the Greek rioters and the snarling thugs of Madison are the logical end point of the advanced social democratic state: not an oppressed underclass, but a spoiled overclass, rioting in defense of its privileges and insisting on more subsidy, more benefits, more featherbedding, more government.
Read the whole thing: http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/3767/26/
More Steyn, about the fairy tales of ‘democracy in the Middle East’: http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/3722/26
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I wonder who you are Murali, and what you do. You are perfectly entitled to your views. In the past we have seen many like you in India who were virulent defenders of the employers’ right to hire and fire, till they received the pink slip. God forbid that should happen to you but let us postpone our debate till that moment. And I can guarantee you that when that happens you will start seeing the world so very differently – including what you call the ‘middle east’. In the meantime, let me just say that, in my opinion, the real thugs are those in power, those fleecing people’s hard earned money put in their custody through banks and taxes, and those who justify this thuggery.
John Civilio, I did not ‘bring Wisconsin in’ as ‘the extension’ of the upsurge in the Arab world. Both in this post nor in the earlier one (The ‘Viral’ Revolutions of our Times) all I did was to point to the ways in which people involved in the struggle are themselves drawing the connection. If students in London agitating against fee hike decide to assemble outside the Egyptian embassy, then maybe you should tell them that they should not be doing so:)
I agree with you that these uprisings show the face of Muslim society (and Islam) that had been forgotten in the face of relentless demonization by the West. But I am afraid your attempt to reduce these uprisings simply to Islam and prayers is utterly misplaced. That is only one aspect of what is happening there today. The other thing is the striving for democracy – and that has certainly no historical or theological roots in Islam. It is the attempt to reinterpret Islam in order to make it democracy-friendly that is so critical in the current moment.
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Dear Aditya Nigam,
Thanks for your comments. What I wanted to re-iterate and re-emphasize was Wiscosin and London agitations are different in content, context and characteristics from what is happening in the middle east. What I wanted to underline was the peaceful nature of revolution that is taking place in the Mideast in contrast to the stereotype violent nature of the Middle eastern people and Islam, the peace, as propagated by the western media. I clearly had written that the elements of religion, economy and politics playing together in the middle-eastern scenario. With regard to Islam’s position vis-a-vis democracy, I had written on this subject in detail while debating with Ms. Devika and Shahjahan. I don’t want to repeat the same though I will write on the cultural aspects of it which I believe I have not written on it. Islam with its socio-political and economic content is neither theocratic as the word Theocracy is understood from the medieval western perspective, nor democratic as we do understand in the modern sense. It is in the middle. It does not allow anybody, individually or collectively, to be sovereign on others except the Creator. However, its concept of Justice and Equality among all absorbs all the values that we associate with the democracy. People do not legislate in Islam. Rather, they deduct from the set of precepts and guidance believed given by God. The right and wrong is not to be decided absolutely based on the number of the people pro and against it. Nor it is to be decided absolutely based on an individual’s deduction from the set of precepts and guidance believed given by God. Rather it is the joint work of collective thought process based on divine guidance. In this respect, I don’t think anybody will refute historical and theological root Islam has with Democracy, though it cannot fully conform with the modern democratic concept which gives absolute sovereignty to the people, though it is only at theoretical level. In this respect, performance analysis of Democracy will prove democracy is only a misnomer and decision usually are taken only by a minority allegedly representing the majority while in reality this minority represents only a minority itself. Koran says: “Say! Not equal are the evil and good and even though excess and abundance of evil may impress you” (5:90).
If democracy is a matter of respecting the opposition, Islam commands its followers to think seeing the things through others eyes when Quran asks “ have you seen if he is upon guidance” (96:11). As Islam’s second Khalif Omar said, If Ali with his different and opposing views was not there, Omar would have ruined”. As Ali, the fourth Khalif of Islam had said “ I want to be on the wrong side and my opponents’ view to be on the right side while debating, discussing and decision making”. About respecting human being regardless of his race and religion, color and caste, tribe and traditions, Quran said “God himself has certainly honored human being” (17:70). Then there is no need of mentioning of need of human being respecting human being. Quran again said “ There is no compulsion in the matter of religion” (2:256) as compulsion is antithetical to both respect and freedom of will given by God. Quran commands its followers to respect even those who worship other than Allah when it said: Do not insult those they invoke other than Allah” (6:108). I don’t think Islam needs in this respect any teaching from democracy. I will say Muslims need to study Islam and Quran properly. Moreover, I think we need to conduct the performance assessment of democracy in this respect also taking into consideration of the pandemonium in the parliaments and legislative assemblies and how the various parties treat others during election time and after both on the streets and parliaments, assemblies, congress and senates. If democracy is a process of finding out the right people to assign the right duty, Koran does not object to it, rather it commands to ensure it. “ Indeed Allah commands you to assign the duties and responsibilities to the right people, and when you rule among the people, to rule with justice”. This verse clearly speaks about the need of very transparent process for finding out the right people to assign the duties and responsibilities in different levels and layers. Moreover, it commands the elected people to rule among the people with justice regardless of party, caste and religion. (Islamic concept of secularism). That’s why we see in the history prophet Mohammad and Abo Bakr hiring a polytheist to guide the un-trodden path to Medina while they were doing a critical and crucial work of migration to Medina. Islam was able to reach three major continents of the world within 40 years of its advent only because it was able to assign the duties and responsibilities to the right people based on merit in contrast to the then modus operandi of the dynasties in terms of cronyism, nepotism and favoritism. You can see democratic process of election in the election of Abu Bakr (direct election) and Othman (Parliamentary election). You can see the glimpses of participatory democracy in the governance of Omar. However, Muslims failed to build from it since Khilafat deteriorated into a kind of monarchy. If democracy is process of decision making involving people and process of prioritizing among options of good, Koran commands it also . “So, pardon them and ask forgiveness for them and consult them in the matter” (3:159). “The affair needs to be determined by and through consultation with them” (42:38). If democracy is a matter of giving the equal opportunity to opponents and opposition to work without upsetting the apple cart tree of peaceful coexistence of pluralistic society, we see God in Quran giving the freedom for Lucifer upon his request to reprieve until the day they are resurrected when it said “ You are of those reprieved” (7:14). Islam doesn’t give sovereignty to people which is only for Allah. It gives the state represented by people the rights and responsibilities of guardianship. I do consider it as beautiful as the relationship between of father and children. In all other political systems, there is an element of fascism since all other political system asserts a kind of supremacy on people in different names. Islam does not believe in any craze of “cracy” with sovereignty given to or taken by any creations. It believes in a kind of vicegerency with the power, rights and responsibilities of a guardian. I fully agree with you that the world as a whole in general and the Muslims in particular need to re-read Quran and Islam. The word used for Koranic verses are Ayaat which itself means leading to some other implicit truths other than what is explicit from the verse itself. It also denotes that the human reasoning and thought will take ayat to the higher realms different, but not contradictory, from what we might have understood explicitly. So, there is an immense possibility of for re- interpretations. Ayat as its meaning itself denotes is not the end, as most of the Muslims believe, and not even the beginning of the end. Rather it is probably only the end of the beginning and the unending process of human thought will take it to the logical and natural conclusion from time to time.
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“..snarling thugs of Madison are the logical end point of the advanced social democratic state: not an oppressed underclass, but a spoiled overclass, rioting in defense of its privileges and insisting on more subsidy, more benefits, more featherbedding, more government. ”
Dear Murali,
I was in Madison, inside the capitol for 14 days, sleeping on the floor with other activists, students, teachers, workers, farmers, cab drivers, etc…not sure how your analysis or the resurgence of a labor struggle against a decrepit capitalist system that has manufactured a financial rises in Wisconsin to kill the unions led you to your conclusion.
This is a broader move by the capitalists, Republicans, tea-party supporters, even the Governor is petted by Koch brothers to undermine regulation, balance of power, to have any opposition to corporate policy…
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