Do Free Elections In Muslim Countries Favor Islamist Extremists?

Amir Taheri argues against the accepted wisdom:

The Islamist defeat in Pakistani confirms a trend that's been under way for years. Conventional wisdom had it that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the lack of progress in the Israel-Palestine conflict, would provide radical Islamists with a springboard from which to seize power through elections.

Analysts in the West used that prospect to argue against the Bush Doctrine of spreading democracy in the Middle East. These analysts argued that Muslims were not ready for democracy, and that elections would only translate into victory for hard-line Islamists.

The facts tell a different story. So far, no Islamist party has managed to win a majority of the popular vote in any of the Muslim countries where reasonably clean elections are held. If anything, the Islamist share of the vote has been declining across the board.

Taheri then goes on to give a survey of a variety of Muslim elections that support his thesis: in Jordan, Malaysia, Turkey, Kuwait, Algeria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan--and Hamas' victory in the 2006 elections:

In Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas -- the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood -- won the 2006 general election with 44% of the votes, far short of the "crushing wave of support" it had promised. Even then, it was clear that at least some of those who run on a Hamas ticket did not share its radical Islamist ideology. Despite years of misrule and corruption, Fatah, Hamas's secularist rival, won 42% of the popular vote.

I don't know--arguing by virtue of the fact that Hamas did not win an overwhelming victory is kind of underwhelming. By the same token, to have barely beat out such a motley group of corrupt politicians does not exactly give Hamas--and Islamist fundamentalists--a mandate.

Technorati Tag: Islamists.