Democracy in the Middle East

I’ve had this idea spinning around in my head for some time now.

Would full-fledged democracy work for the countries in the Middle East or not?
And would the US really want these countries to have a true democracy?

Currently, these countries have different levels of democracy implemented or in some cases none, but how good would it be if they went the whole way?


Let’s break it down and take it step by step following a very probable scenario.

Middle Eastern countries are ruled by religiously moderate leaders who try to keep religious fundamentalism under firm control, but a downside of doing that is having more limits on moderate religion too, thereby creating a big thirst for religion in the society.

Now, let’s say full democracy is injected into these countries and elections come up. Of course, some radical religious fundamentalist group will run for rule, and the people will be ready to hear what they have to say after years of religious thirst.
These groups will use that point and others to the full extent, try to paint themselves as moderate and convince people that they only want to bring back the religious roots to their countries.
I truly believe it wouldn’t be hard for these people to target the majority of conservative, medium to lower class voters and win the elections.
After that, the truth shows and it’s obvious they’re not as moderate as they said they would be.

So, what do we get?
Countries that are ruled by radical extremist groups. And, well no need to even mention the million bad things that will follow that, it’s too obvious to state.
But one big thing is a clear anti-US position by these governments.

I don’t think the US would really want that happening. It suits them and their interests better the way things are now.

Of course, democracy is all about trial and error. There is no 100% correct choice or perfect answer and thankfully in a few years you always get a chance to correct the mistake you could have made.
It’s all a part of the process and with time things get balanced and everything works out fine.

So, the people will hopefully realize that their choice was wrong and will hope that the fact that there is democracy still holds so that they can correct their mistake in the next elections.
Or another option is that the US will interfere to bring back “moderate democracy” to the region creating a number of other Iraqs and Afghanistans.
Either way, the relations with the US won’t get any better.
Not too good for them, and they wouldn’t want it to end that way.

To cut it short, I believe democracy is very necessary in the Middle East even though there could be some hard times at first, but still everything would work itself out with time and with the whole process of democracy. Anyway, I don’t believe that the US really wants the Middle East to go through with it.
They want US controlled democracy, a democracy they cut out for the countries of the Middle East to serve their interests and their agendas.

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Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Mohamed Marwen Meddah is a Tunisian-Canadian, web aficionado, software engineering leader, blogger, and amateur photographer.

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