Defending the Middle East Right, How Some Militias are Better than Others……..
“In much of the Arab world a majority of old-line Arab nationalists, communists, and Baathists (alongside an alarming number of westernised liberals) have come to embrace groups such as Hizbollah and Hamas, whose reliance on the perpetuation of violence, anti-secularism, and contempt for the values of the Enlightenment draw much from the principles and idiom of the extreme right. The Arab left has decades of post-colonial failure as its balance sheet, ceding to Islamists the role of spokespersons for their anti-Americanism and commitment to the Palestinians. The western left, particularly in the anti-globalisation movement, has largely followed suit, helping sustain the Middle East’s most intolerant forces. Applaud Mr Hitchens for insisting that this is not the natural place of the left, at least one that is liberal and humanistic. But you might be branded a neo-con if you do…….”
He says “anti-secularism, and contempt for the values of the Enlightenment…..” This attitude is not confined to Hezbollah and Hamas: it seems to apply to almost any Arab monarchy, as well as to many “republics” in the Middle East (including Saudi Arabia and Iran, both not very enlightened last time I looked, especially the absolute Saudi monarchy).
The writer, Michael Young, is apparently enamored with the Lebanese right and its militias, responsible for many sectarian massacres, including the infamous Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. These Arab leftists and secularists he talks about do not necessarily agree with Hezbollah and Hamas or espouse their ideology, which is based on Islamic fundamentalism. Perhaps it is the utter disgust with the alternative, the decades-long oligarchies and absolute rulers whose shortcomings have led to the creation of such fundamentalist alternatives. For example, to go against the Hariri-Lebanese Forces right wing alliance in Lebanon does not necessarily mean accepting the wilayet-el-faqih rule of Iran. In the same sense that he (and presumably Hitchens) abhor the human rights record of the Arab right (Saudi Arabia, Egypt) as they do that of the Iranian right. It is just that these hereditary blocs have ruled Lebanon for 70 years and it took a militia force like Hezbollah (and Amal) to finally bring schools and clinics to most people in the former feudal fiefs of Southern Lebanon…..
It is probably the results that matter to many people, stupid.
Cheers
mhg
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