In my opinion, in most of the Muslim countries, the worst problem is not the status quo but that the only viable anti-status quo force there are the Islamists. Sadly, it also suits the "enlightened moderate" rulers of Muslim world who have left no stone unturned to weaken the secular opposition to prove their credentials as the sole only antidote to radical Islam.
Some extracts from the article below. The article(http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/3044) is worth reading in spite of the author.
Fascism is most effectively fought through an extension of liberties, the creation and/or strengthening of political institutions. There can be no compromise with fascism, no give and take, no quest for consensus. Those who think they can ally themselves with fascism to win power against a regime that they do not like, have not heard the proverb about falling from the frying pan into the fire. Many of the intellectuals that the Shah used to put in detention for brief periods were shot, jailed or driven into exile by Khomeini despite the fact that they had signed the "devil's pact" with him or, may be, because they had. They did not realise, or did not wish to realise, that freedom, democracy and human rights are incompatible with fascism. They fought a regime that they disliked, rightly or wrongly, by supporting a movement which they should have disliked even more intensely. They did not realise that those who use religion as their stock-in-trade cannot offer pluralism and democracy even if they tried. The ayatollah, the Pope, the Hindu gurus or the Dalai Lama have no freedom and democracy to offer.
The first lesson that Muslim intellectuals must learn from the Iranian experience is that that ought to be themselves. They should not abandon their core political beliefs to forge an alliance with the fascists. Today, most regimes in the Muslim world are corrupt and despotic and, thus, must be fought as enemies of their people. But one must always fight them from positions that are more human, more progressive and more democratic than those of the regime in place. To try and bring down a bad regime only to replace it with something much worse is a costly error that I hope will not be repeated by intellectuals in other Muslim countries.
Some extracts from the article below. The article(http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/3044) is worth reading in spite of the author.
Fascism is most effectively fought through an extension of liberties, the creation and/or strengthening of political institutions. There can be no compromise with fascism, no give and take, no quest for consensus. Those who think they can ally themselves with fascism to win power against a regime that they do not like, have not heard the proverb about falling from the frying pan into the fire. Many of the intellectuals that the Shah used to put in detention for brief periods were shot, jailed or driven into exile by Khomeini despite the fact that they had signed the "devil's pact" with him or, may be, because they had. They did not realise, or did not wish to realise, that freedom, democracy and human rights are incompatible with fascism. They fought a regime that they disliked, rightly or wrongly, by supporting a movement which they should have disliked even more intensely. They did not realise that those who use religion as their stock-in-trade cannot offer pluralism and democracy even if they tried. The ayatollah, the Pope, the Hindu gurus or the Dalai Lama have no freedom and democracy to offer.
The first lesson that Muslim intellectuals must learn from the Iranian experience is that that ought to be themselves. They should not abandon their core political beliefs to forge an alliance with the fascists. Today, most regimes in the Muslim world are corrupt and despotic and, thus, must be fought as enemies of their people. But one must always fight them from positions that are more human, more progressive and more democratic than those of the regime in place. To try and bring down a bad regime only to replace it with something much worse is a costly error that I hope will not be repeated by intellectuals in other Muslim countries.
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