Islam's "Democratic" Future

President Bush has made spreading democracy throughout the Arab world a centerpiece of his foreign policy and a key strategy in the evasively named "War on Terrorism." But a closer examination of the result of recent election in the Middle East should give pause to those who think democracy a panacea for either terrorism or the general backwardness of the Islamic world. In Egypt, the fanatical Muslim Brotherhood saw its candidates win a historic and surprising number of seats in the national legislature, in spite of brutal efforts by the secular government to prevent such an outcome. In Palestine, the situation is no better, according to Lee Harris, writing on TCS Daily:

Mariam Farhat, a 56 year old mother, will be running alongside her male colleagues in the upcoming January elections for the Palestinian parliament, and, by all accounts, she will easily win a seat, due to her enormous popularity among the Palestinians. At first glance, this might seem like good news: a Muslim female who has the will to play an active role in the future of her country, and who is supported in her ambitions by the male-dominated political party to which she belongs. But, unfortunately, the party that is backing her is the terrorist organization Hamas, and her popularity is based on her well-deserved reputation as "the mother of martyrs."

Mariam Farhat got her nickname because three of her sons died either during an attack on Israeli settlers in Gaza or else while preparing for such an attack. Yet a good bit of her immense popularity must be attributed to a video that Hamas is using as part of its electoral campaign -- a video in which Mrs. Farhat is shown advising her son Mohammed on how to kill Israelis, and in which she herself is seen toting a gun, like a Palestinian Ma Barker. Mohammed, by the way, was just seventeen -- not old enough to buy cigarettes in the USA.

Mother’s tactical advice must have been first-rate, because Mohammed was able to kill five Israeli settlers before he was himself whisked away to join the ranks of the martyrs in paradise. No wonder she is seen as "a sure vote-winner," as the writer of a Reuters news story breathlessly reported. Who could resist a woman who has happily sacrificed three sons to the cause of wiping Israel off the map, and who still has three more sons left to give the same sacred cause?

Harris also notes the differing mindsets of Western parents who try to discourage their sons from playing with ‘violent," "militaristic" toys like guns, and Islamic parents who encourage their sons to become martyrs by blowing themselves up and taking as many of the infidels with them as possible.

What happens to a society where moms forbid their boys to play with toy guns? Especially if this society is living in a world where there are moms like Mariam Farhat who are willing to offer their boys pointers on how to kill people with real ones?