Illiberal Civil Society?

Submitted by Anthony Chase (United States), Apr 13, 2003 at 01:42

As always, very interesting. I get the point about not jolting from authoritarianism to elections without the building of civil society in between. But my impression is that a good deal of the substance of that civil society is what we would call liberalism - even what the American Bar Association would call an adversary system - and it includes all kinds of things (like constitutionalism, right to counsel, the separation of church and state, freedom of expression - including religious expression) that run contrary to any version of Islamism. In other words, there would be no point in an Islamist political party trying to get elected by the time elections roll around if you have already created a firm foundation for something that they do not want (modernism?)in any event. Clarification?
Thanks. Tony Chase

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Daniel Pipes replies:

Agreed. Islamists parties are at war with civil society - at least they are after they use democracy to get them to power. Think of Hitler.

DP