"The
Many Kronenzeitung, November 9, 2002
By Kurt Seinitz,
In Turkey a party came to power which claims the ability to combine Islamic principles (one thousand years old) with democracy. This will now have to be proven. If successful, it could become an example for the entire Islamic World (in which the Arabs are a minority). If, as one must assume, the resistance against American hegemony and cultural dominance cannot be stopped there, it is better to integrate pious men into a parliamentary system, than to leave radical fundamentalists in the underground the monopoly of opposition.
A functioning democracy cannot be imposed from the outside, however. It must come from inside. On the other hand, any claim that Islam is the sole road to salvation beyond will leave the West and the East at a dead end. A universal solution already exists, as laid down in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the measure for any system.
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