3 - 9 January 2002
Issue No.567
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 3 - 9 January 2002 Issue No.567 |
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Godfather of dictators
The claim that the international campaign on terrorism marks an end to liberal democracy does not seem to me to be entirely justified. Compromising human rights, spreading the police-state mentality, invading individual privacy and arresting people without charge -- the campaign on terrorism is said to have resulted in all this, and more, in America, Britain and the West.
Those who make this claim ignore the fact that terrorism is the godfather of dictatorship, however. It is terrorism that legitimises totalitarianism and the police state, sweeping away not only individual but public freedoms, and propels broad-based popular support for human rights breaches by governments. People, in their desire for security and stability, are ready to support even the most dictatorial regime so long as that regime vows to protect their lives and property.
The rising tide of terrorism, especially the kind that relies on religious slogans, has in fact had a disastrous effect on politics. The struggle to achieve national and democratic objectives has been replaced by simple and ultimately futile acts of terror, acts that distract from positive political awareness among the populace and drive people away from legitimate struggles.
Regardless of any possible reservations one might have about the current campaign, liquidating terrorism is a prerequisite for the avchievement of democracy. Terrorism spreads an atmosphere of extremism in which terrorists think that they alone believe in God and are loyal to the national struggle. Their acts are imbued with a sanctity they do not really possess, a mistaken perspective that deives them away from democractic dialogue and towards dictatorial violence.
*This week's Soapbox speaker is the editor of the Ministry of Culture's weekly Al-Qahira
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