Islam and Democracy in the Middle East
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200506000126 |
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| Author | Paul Kingston |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
of
11 September, he argues,were wrong not because they took
lives,
but
becausethey took lives"with no possiblejustifying end," with no promise
of
"savingpeople from bad
lives"
(118-19). He gives two counter-exam-
ples: Palestinian terrorists in Israel,and a fictional African terrorist group
protesting against poverty and exploitation. Here, Honderich argues,we
are dealing with "liberation-terrorism," based on the "terrible truth" that
violence may be the only rational way to savepeople from bad
lives.
In
the more controversial example, that
of
the Palestinians, he argues that
they have a "moral right in their terrorism against the Israelis" because it
is being conducted in full accordance with the principle
of
humanity
(151). Similarly, ''Mrican terrorism against our rich countries would be
right if it had a reasonable hope
of
success"
(156).
Honderich's book is easy to caricature as the armchair radicalism
of
an eminent London philosopher. But the author develops his contro-
versial case clearly and carefully, conceding ambiguities
and
counter-
arguments where appropriate,
and
on the basis
of
this book only an
imbecile
could
accuse
him
of
anti-Americanism or anti-Semitism.
Even readers who see themselves as hard-headed realists or conserva-
tiveswill find much
to
ponder in this bleak and rigorous
essay,
and it is
ashame
that
the wild outpourings
of
Conrad
Black's dying regime
were able to overshadow what is an invigorating
and
timely work
of
moral and political philosophy.
Dominic
Sandbrook/Rothermere
American Institute,
Oxford
University
ISLAM
AND
DEMOCRACY
INTHE
MIDDLE
EAST
Edited by Larry Diamond, Marc
F.
Plattner, and Daniel Brumberg
Baltimore:
Johns
Hopkins
University Press, 2003. xxvi,
322pp,
us$45.00 cloth
(ISBN
0-8018-7847-0), US$17.95 paper
(ISBN
0-818-
7848-9)
This is a
much
awaited volume on the prospects for democracy in
the
Middle
East. Its
contents
are taken from aselect
group
of
articles
that
have appeared in the
Journal
of
Democracy
over the last
number
of
years
and
complements a series
of
similar volumes
that
have investigated the processes
of
democratization in
other
parts
of
the developing world.
The
volume is divided into three sections
with
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Winter
2004-2005 295
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