Clovis Maksoud, a former Arab League ambassador to the United Nations

TEHRAN – Clovis Maksoud, the former Arab League's chief representative to the United Nations, says “Islam will inevitably be the incubator of the moral values and ethical behavior” in the Arab world in which despotic rulers are falling one after another. 

 

In an interview with the Mehr News Agency, Maksoud also said, “As long as the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights are not addressed properly, the positive aspects of the Arab renaissance and revolution will remain vulnerable for reversal.”

 

Following is the text of the interview:

 

Q: What is your prediction of governmental systems in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Libya in the future?

 

A: The emerging governments in the three states you mentioned vary because of the differences in what they have inherited both in terms of previously existing infrastructure and in terms of the suppressed political parties surfacing after the removal of the authoritarian regimes. 

 

In Egypt, the two Islamic parties, namely the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood won a combined 62% of votes in the recent election, partly due to the humanitarian services that the Muslim Brotherhood provided and also due to the suppression of both groups by the authoritarian regime. This was also due to the fact that the secular, liberal, progressive, leftist organs who were at the vanguard of the revolution that led to the fall of the Mubarak regime were dispersed and did not form a united front, ultimately enabling the organized Brotherhood to capture nearly a majority of the votes. And while the Salafis are not necessarily with the Brotherhood, constituting a defining balance for the brotherhood in parliament, and perhaps, even, trying to compete with them, it is clear that the parliament at this juncture is the first authentically elected by the people. However, it is necessary to keep in mind that the military establishment will continue to be, regrettably, a constraining and inhibiting force on the speedy evolution of democracy – hopefully for a shorter period than expected. 

 

In Tunis, the transition has been more orderly that while the Islamist party won an impressive plurality, the earlier dispersed secular, liberal, and left wing parties were organized into two groups and combined together in a majority. The transitional government, pending the drafting of the constitution is now, perhaps, the most orderly transition among the other revolutionary developments. 

 

On the other hand, Libya remains in a state of flux in this moment with the National Transitional Council not having full governing acceptability due to the lingering tribal rivalries and regional claims of some of the revolutionaries. 

In Yemen, the transition has already taken place and the governing framework, while stabilizing, is still considered by the younger generations as inadequate, and it remains for the existing transitional government, while legally acceptable, to become perceived as legitimate. 

 

Q: What is the role of Islam in shaping the future form of governments in these countries?

 

A: The role of Islam will inevitably be the incubator of the moral values and ethical behavior of the future governments, but it is important that the governments realize that while governing requires these values, it also requires facing challenges and building infrastructures and shaping policies that should not be constrained by theological imperatives, as some will try to do. This means that the notion of secularism is not separation of religion from the state, because the state is some total of its citizens who are, broadly speaking in the Arab World, Muslims. It is, instead, the separation of the state from the political authority of religious institutions so that these institutions can enhance their influence on the values and ethical behavior because if they seek to be a source of political authority with all its complexity, that would diminish their influence and impinge on the requirements of governance. In this way, this separation enhances the ethical and spiritual authority of religious institutions and creates the atmosphere necessary for the policies that are devised by the governance in its various political institutions to devise the required policies that protects the national interest and popular aspirations. 

 

Q: Can we see the friendly relationship between the West and these countries in the future?

 

A: Friendly relations on the part of new Arab governments should seek to have relations with all – but as a consequence not of prior alliances but of independent judgment similar to what was characterized during the Cold War through the Non-Aligned Movement. This means that foreign policy would be an expression of the independent will of the state and not satisfaction exclusively with the paraphernalias of sovereignty. Finally, it is important to realize for the Arab nation, with all its states, it is imperative that a profound revision of their policies on Palestine should be undertaken so that, on the one hand, Israel’s impunity will not be without cost and it’s violations of international law without penalty. In particular, Egypt should begin to discover, as I think it will, that the Camp David agreements have undermined its deterrent role of Israel’s violations of Palestinian national and human rights, and that that will always remain the reason that its leadership in the Arab Nation shrunk and that is the means by which its influence and deterrent power should be restored. 

 

During this whole regional uprising, Palestine would remain the incubator of the necessary correctives of governance throughout the Arab Nation because as long as the Palestinian peoples’ inalienable rights are not addressed properly, the positive aspects of the Arab renaissance and revolution will remain vulnerable for reversal because it is in this context, that while the “Arab Spring” did not involve directly the Palestinian cause, it cannot sustain itself progressively and cannot have the inherent self corrective trigger unless Palestinian centrality to the Arab cause is restored and consolidated. 

 

Clovis Maksoud is Professor of International Relations and Director of the Center for the Global South at American University in Washington, DC. He was the League of Arab States' Chief Representative to the United States and the United Nations. He is the author of several articles and books on the Middle East and the global South, among them: "The Meaning of Non-Alignment," "The Crisis of the Arab Left," "Reflections on Afro-Asianism," and "The Arab Image."

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