The West, Allen argues retrospectively, failed to understand the religious aspect of Arab politics because it was ‘remote, religious and difficult’, concentrating instead on Arab nationalism. If Arab regimes were unable to combat the rise of Islamism, we were unlikely to have been more successful. A less steadfast support for politically moribund regimes might have helped, of course, but the price — risking all that energy — was considered too high.
The preference of the Arab for consensus, the traditional religious abhorrence of fitna or communal strife, together with enduring patterns of tribal authority and loyalty do not lend themselves immediately to multiparty democracy. Though he generally shies away from providing answers here, Allen says the question of whether Western democracy is well suited to the Arab world ‘must remain open’. He then outlines the constraints in a way which strongly suggests it is not at all well suited. Iraq, from this short perspective, appears to confirm his instincts.
Allen’s book, an illuminating discourse on what it means to be an Arab, is a timely reminder that Western policy-makers should understand the nature, customs, history and identity of a region and its people before imposing their own dangerously experimental templates.
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