Bringing Down the Arc of Tyranny, How Europe Can Help
(Address before the congress of the Italian Radical Party, Rome, November 2, 2003)
By Dr. Muhamad Mugraby | Watch it on RealVideo

Ladies and Gentlemen:

As a Lebanese, the theme of your congress intrigues me. If your goal is to liberalize Italy and bring it fully under the rule of law, what can I say about the similar, but immensely more formidable, needs, in these areas, of my country, which is ruled by a repressive regime that cannot even think for itself because it takes orders from another repressive regime, that of neighboring Syria? If your goal is to bring about the unity of Europe and America, in order to strengthen liberty and perfect the rule of law, when will you turn your attention to the Southern Mediterranean region where there is very little liberty and no rule of law? I speak for the oppressed peoples of the Southern Mediterranean when I say: We share your quest for liberty and the rule of law, not because, like you, we wish to perfect our liberty and achieve the fullest application of a rule of law we already have, but because we simply have no liberty and no rule of law.

Last August I was arrested in Beirut because I had been doing things and spreading ideas that were not interesting to the regime. In fact, the regime had plenty of reasons for my arrest. Over the past twelve years, they (and by "they" I mean the regime) sought my criminal prosecution ten times. During the same period, my law firm initiated or defended over one hundred and fifty cases involving gross violations of human rights or abuse of power. About four years ago my colleagues and I started a coalition of lawyers and non-lawyers with the express goal of restoring integrity to the judicial system, which we called "Campaign for Judicial Integrity". I wrote many articles and gave many speeches and seminars that irritated or embarrassed the regime or its figures. I tried, as best as I can, to teach people their rights so that they can defend what is lawfully theirs. I defied symbols of the regime too forcefully, too often. When I could not get my statements published through the media I had flyers printed and hand distributed and made fax and internet broadcasts. This is why they ordered my arrest. Three weeks later, I was released thanks to the international pressure generated by the support I received from brave persons and organizations. Many courageous leaders from your party were at the forefront of these efforts and I wish to thank them all. In particular, I wish to share with you special words of appreciation that cannot begin to justly describe the unique role of Emma Bonino, who inspired and directed a highly effective world wide campaign for my release, who very closely kept in touch with my family during the difficult days when I was in jail, and who, after my release, traveled to Beirut to see for herself how the situation was. Hers, and every one else's, support will be dearly needed for as long as Lebanon continues to suffer from oppression.

Legend has it that Europe was named after a beautiful Phoenician princess, Europa, who was taken as a bride by Zeus, and that her brother, Kadmous, went looking for his sister in what later became Europe and, in the process, taught the Europeans-to-be the Phoenician alphabet which is the basis of the present day Latin and Arabic Alphabets. Without the Alphabet, knowledge could not have been so easily developed, stored, and transmitted.

If the Phoenicians were pioneers in the development of the Alphabet, the Romans were pioneers in the development of the law. The Justinian Code became the basis of all the other great codes of law that followed. We in Lebanon like to take partial credit for the drafting work for this code performed in the ancient Beirut school of law. The rule of law that was born in Rome remains the corner stone of modern systems of governance and the guarantor of democracy and human rights.

The Romans gave us all the doctrine of separation of church and state, which is the essential precondition for the freedom of speech that brought about the Renaissance. This freedom permitted the unrestricted exchange of new ideas, many of which proved to be far superior to the old ideas, without the political influence of the clergy. This giant human leap culminated in the recognition of the individual as the center of the new, free societies that were taking shape in Europe and the New World. Protection of the rights of the individual became the object of several national bills of rights. These bills, in turn, became sources for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights resolved by the United Nations in 1948 and authored by American, European and Lebanese UN representatives.

All this is about ideas, the freedom of the flow of ideas, and the legal protection for both the ideas and the holders of ideas. For there could be no human progress without such constant flow of new and better ideas. There could be no economic opportunity or prosperity without assuring the free flow of new and better ideas. And there could be no freedom, whether in the political or the economic sense, without the ability to advance new ideas in opposition to long established ideas. In fact, it is very difficult to imagine a complete human existence and experience without ideas.

Thus, democracy, freedom, prosperity, and the future of mankind are all the product of ideas and depend on ideas. If left on their own, good ideas will inevitably, and in time, prevail over bad ideas. Unquestionably, most human beings, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, judge ideas by their results, and ideas that improve the quality and standards of their lives, and enhance their freedoms and economic opportunities, are always judged to be good ideas. Similarly, ideas that bring about peace and sustain friendly relations among peoples and nations are always good ideas. Ideas that prevent or end conflicts are always good ideas. Ideas that bring mankind together are all good ideas. On the other hand, there could be no argument over what ideas are universally perceived as bad or very bad ideas, such as the ideas that ferment hatred and armed conflicts or the ideas that favor racism, totalitarianism, or fascism.

The power of ideas was manifested in traditional public international law of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in parallel with national laws. There was a belief in a community of nations based on the sharing of, and adherence to, certain common rules, values and standards. Hence, admission to this community was conditional on the recognition, and protection of those rules, values and standards. The Ottoman Sultanate, which doubled as the last Islamic Caliphate, came under international pressure in the mid nineteenth century to introduce basic reforms as a condition of being recognized as a member of the community of nations. Among the various Ottoman laws introduced in the process of a long reformation was a freedom of association law that continues to be applicable in Lebanon as a former territory of the defunct sultanate. It is ironic that the Lebanese government, strictly instructed by the Syrian government, has been flagrantly violating this law as a prelude to abrogating it all together. The government of Lebanon is widely recognized as a surrogate of the Syrian government. The Syrian regime is widely recognized as one of the most repressive regimes, a twin of the Iraqi regime that recently collapsed under the military pressure of the American and British expeditionary forces.

Freedom House, a research organization in New York and Washington that monitors political rights and civil liberties world wide, publishes an annual survey on the status of these rights. Each country is given a grade on a scale of one to seven, one being the highest grade and seven being the lowest grade. In its 2003 report, Italy scored one; Iraq, Syria, Libya and the Sudan received seven.

I was particularly interested in that part of Freedom House's survey of twenty-four countries stretching from Casablanca to Kuala Lumpur, a wide geographic area that includes the Southern Mediterranean. Not a single one of them was judged free. Most were labeled not free and very few were, on a mark of 5, judged only partly free. This area looks like an arc of tyranny.

The faults of the Iraqi regime were highlighted by the publicity given to the recent events. Like Syria and other oppressive regimes in the neighborhood, the Iraqi regime was the beneficiary of a transfer of repressive governance and secret police technology from the old communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. It insured its survival by eliminating opposition and dissent and monopolizing the flow of ideas, very bad ideas. It used all the resources of the state, and even the food provided under the food-for-oil program, to strengthen its grip over the Iraqi people. Any form of aid that entered Iraq served first to support the regime and prolong the oppression. Most Iraqis worked for one employer, the regime. There was no democratic alternative in place. When the regime fell, it was total chaos because there was no one left to put the pieces together.

We should not forget, however, that the Iraqi tyranny was not invented by its last dictator but originated in 1958. The Syrian tyranny has its origins in 1949. All those oppressive regimes were born, grew and prospered under the eyes of western democracies that conducted bad policies of befriending, manipulation and neglect motivated by economic and commercial strategies at the expense of liberty and the rule of law. They were all diplomatically recognized by western powers and they have European and American embassies on their territory. Their officials are officially visited by European and American emissaries and are often invited to make state visits to Europe and North America. In international relations and under public international law there is nothing that gives legitimacy like diplomatic recognition and the exchange of ambassadors.

The Arc of Tyranny is a haven to bad ideas. As a result, the peoples ruled by the oppressive regimes are denied the benefits of the far superior ideas that are the basis of the advancement and prosperity of the West. They suffer needlessly. As a cover-up, their suffering is blamed by their rulers, or the rulers' cronies, on the governments of Europe and North America, a group now symbolized by one nation, the USA, while openly befriending and seeking the protection of the same Western powers. These cynical ways have their expression mostly through the local media, which is controlled, abused, and manipulated by the tyrants. The disinformation is effective despite the fact that the oppressed peoples are convinced that those regimes cannot survive without Western, and largely American support. Hence, it is easy to convince the people that their chance to bring down their oppressive and corrupt regimes can only be secured by defeating the Western, chiefly American, supporters or at least hurting them so badly that they willfully decide to withdraw their support. Many examples are given in evidence of the soundness of this doctrine: Vietnam, Lebanon, Somalia and hopefully Iraq. This is obviously a Bin Laden doctrine, which receives wide and growing support among the oppressed peoples of the Arc of Tyranny.

The Bin Laden doctrine is also a very bad idea. It does not offer those peoples any promise of freedom, prosperity or democracy. The promise of Bin Laden is the return to an imaginary Islamic state, which never existed, and that is to return them into ancient ways and ideas that are no longer good or valid. In fact, these ideas are very stale and, if applied, will have very bad results. In reality, Bin Laden is no more than a franchise. Many Bin Laden franchise holders are working hard at fermenting hatred and preparing and training generations upon generations of suicide bombers that willfully give up their lives for the purpose of hurting their imaginary enemies, and not realizing that this idea is a very bad idea.

It is obvious that if the present conditions in the Arc of Tyranny continue to prevail, then there will be more terrorist attacks by the misinformed and the misled oppressed, fueled by bad ideas, against their imaginary, not real, oppressors. This may be followed by more military campaigns against the countries where the oppressed suicide bombers come from.

Is there no alternative for this possible, and quite likely, course of events?

Is there a new role for ideas, good ideas, to play?

Let us remember that the communist regimes of Eastern Europe were not defeated by military force, they could not have been. They imploded, under the weight of the good ideas and values of Western societies, in spite of their high military preparedness, in spite of all their tanks and missiles and larger standing armies.

Let us also remember that it did not happen spontaneously. It took a united and sustained effort by the West to unmask the bad ideas of the former communist oppressive regimes of Eastern Europe and enhance the exposure of the Eastern Europeans to the superior and better ideas that enabled freedom, democracy and prosperity in the West. The fall of the oppressive regimes of most Eastern European countries opened the way to the cleaning up of a bad neighborhood which made possible the admission of many of those countries to the EU.

The southern Mediterranean shores constitute the western flank of the Arc of Tyranny. Let us admit that these shores make, from the northern European perspective, a bad neighborhood, a neighborhood, which is only slightly more distant than the former communist neighborhood of Eastern Europe. The new awareness on terrorism caused by the events of September 11, 2001, makes this neighborhood more dangerous and far more unpredictable than the old Eastern European neighborhood. There, there was mutual deterrence, and an attack from Eastern Europe on Western Europe or North America would have been unthinkable because it would have caused immediate and massive retaliation. Here, in the Arc of Tyranny, the assault will not come from any of its governments but from private persons oppressed by such governments.

Hence, the promise of security from terror attacks must come hand in hand with the promise for better future for the peoples of the Arc of Tyranny. This requires action on two fronts:

On the first front, Western governments must adopt a new policy vis a vis the oppressive regimes of the Arc designed to end their monopoly over power, create a large space for opposition and dissent, terminate their control of the media and open large new corridors for the transmission of good ideas and other ideas not favored by, or favorable to, the regimes. There should be no more aid or any upgrade in relations that lend legitimacy to the oppressive rulers. There should be a uniform reform plan for openness and democratization, with full respect for human dignity, human rights, and the rule of law, to be offered to, and required from, all those regimes. The plan should take the form of a sanction-carrying and binding international convention that complements the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The faithful introduction and implementation of the agreed reforms must be carefully monitored. Countries that receive passing grades will be rewarded by greater access to the European Union and eventual admission. Countries that fail the test will not receive any form of aid.

On the second and more important front, a major initiative must be launched to educate and train the people of those countries, not only the educated but also the common man, in the ideas and values that the freedom and prosperity of the West owed their existence to, and to convert them to these ideas. Those ideas are generally taken for granted in the West and are subject to little or no debate, but they are mostly alien to the peoples under tyranny. The initiative should equally and simultaneously aim to unmask the bad ideas of the oppressive regimes.

The bottom line of this message will be that there is a well-known record of success in the experience of Western societies. Instead of immigrating to Western Europe or North America in pursuit of economic opportunity, such opportunity will very fast come to the doorsteps of those peoples as a result of converting to the new ideas and values, for good governance based on liberty and the rule of law will surely result in prosperity.

I know this is a tall order but such a major conversion will not be the first of its kind in the history of mankind. Look at the billions of Christians and Muslims that live on Earth today. There were no Christians before Christ and there were no Muslims before Muhammad. Most converts to the two great religions believed that they found in ideas superior to their old ideas. The newest conversion will make it possible for the entire Mediterranean to become a basin of prosperity under the values and ideals of democracy and human rights that will exist side by side with all religions, in observance of the doctrine of separation of church and state. No more bad neighborhoods for Lebanon or for Europe; no more Arc of Tyranny. Just liberty and the rule of law.