Democracy is Just A Joke! [Archives:2000/18/Focus]

By: Sadaf Shah
In the recent summit between the European Union and the African states, the European member states emphasized the adoption of democracy by Africa in exchange for more aid.
Time and again, the West keeps coming up with new means of controlling the East. Through colonization, they exploited the raw materials, cheap labor of the people, and the economy of “their” colony so much so that even up until now, those colonies have not been able to recover. They implore the “help” of the West in relieving their debts, notwithstanding the fact that it was the west in the first place that forced them to plunge into the miserable hole they now find themselves in.
The African slave trade is yet another example of the power the west exerted over other nations. Many thousands of people (a rough estimate) had to suffer and die before words like equality, justice, and basic human rights appeared not too long ago. The slave trade brought many Africans to the States where they endured further racism and segregation in the name of ‘supremacy”
And now finally, the West has come up with a distinguished means of controlling the world: “democracy”. If democracy has supposedly worked for the better for the West, who is to say that will be just as fruitful for the East?
In principle, should not aid be provided to those in desperate need? In realty, only those who bow down to the West by wearing the ugly mask of democracy received aid. The people of Ethiopia have been afflicted with famine now for the third year, but only recently has it made headlines on CNN. Where was the West when genocide was taking place in Bosnia? And what about Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, East Timor, Uganda and the more recent Chechnya?
Only where the interest of the West is at stake, does it promptly intervene; as was the case with the Gulf War. And because the United States was not able to topple the regime in Iraq, so it keeps bombing the country daily. As if the people of Iraq are already not suffering enough from useless economic sanctions. and the worthless ‘oil for food’ program. Nothing as slavish as this ever happened to apartheid in South Africa. If this is what democracy entails, then beware, we are better off without it!
Instead of democracy, let Muslims propagate for themselves a truly Islamic state of government as outlined in the Holy Quran, an honest government that is not influenced nor controlled by any force, be it national or international, a state that guarantees life and security of its citizens regardless of race, color, religion, or even gender, where even the rights of minorities are respected, and the result of knowledge be the goal of its people. Such a state with all its civil liberties and human rights was presented to the Muslims 1500 years ago, before democracy was even conceptualized.
The intention of this article is not to arouse hatred against the West and its people, but awareness. The Western media has for too long portrayed Islam as a religion of violence and Muslims as extreme fundamentalists.
It is about time the Muslim nation responded to the allegations. Response, not by waging war by the sword. Rather, by waging war through the power of the pen.
Beware of the hypocrisy behind the foreign policy of the West and its “democratic principles.” In actuality, democracy is just a joke.

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