If it is Serious About Curbing Political Islam, The West Must Support Demonstrators in Tunisia Unequivocally

There was another modernizer in the Islamic world, overthrown a little over thirty years ago circa 1979, his name was Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. On October 22 1979 The Shah stepped on a plane to the US, never to return to his beloved "Persia." My guess is that  President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's sojourn to an as yet undisclosed locale will remain just as permanent, wherever he finds sanctuary.  There had been reports that France (Tunisia's former colonizer) was requested as a sanctuary state by the former Tunisian leader, but President Sarkozy denies these reports just as loudly as he allegedly denied sanctuary itself to the longtime dictator (for more on this, see the second article from The Guardian linked above).

Like the now ousted Ben-Ali, in addition to a Westernizing and Modernizing program, The Shah was infamous for his authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The effects of this conflagration of secularism and authoritarianism is known to many Muslims, and the effects these resentments entailed in Iran could easily be reproduced in North Africa over the course of the next few weeks. So long as the West continues to throw its economic, diplomatic, and rhetorical weight behind authoritarian "modernizers" many Muslims around the world will continue to associate feminism and secular values with Western puppet regimes, torture, and the primacy of oil extraction over the the voices and interests of poor people across Muslim majority nations.

....and, some of these conclusions wouldn't be wrong, unfortunately for those of us who do genuinely care n human rights here in the Roman City on the Hill....

The parallels between Iran and the unfolding situation in this small North African nation so often lionized a model of a "modern" Islamic country are chilling. Street demonstrations, police clashes, and today the  (in)famous moment of the "flee." Luckily for observers, the symbolism of the flee is one of the oldest facets of anything resembling "modern politics" in world history. Since Louis XVI fled the National Assembly in 1791 "the flee" been the universal sign of a regime's insolvency. Even if he returns, in Lacanian terms, after the flee the leader never really "back." Whatever the outcome of the ongoing political uncertainty remains to be see, Ben Ali already is what he "will have been."

Make no mistake, if Western democracies continues to throw military and economic clout behind Ben-Ali's regime, even while publicly calling for the "constitutional" option, the language of political Islam, whoever its bearers, will seize the day in Tunisia.  The US and France have taken some preliminary steps, but now we need more content and less form. Those who value democracy around the world should advocate a real choice for Tunisia and her people, not merely the "transition" to Ben Ali's prime minister with the possibility that Ben Ali might attempt to return to the country in order to disrupt elections.  With speculation rife as to how the recent protests will effect Mubarak's grip on Egypt, and the France comparison gaining traction with Saudi Arabia, a real choice faces Europe and America, who with China's energy consumption rising every day, are no longer the only game in town if you want to build a nice little oil plutocracy. Either we demand something more for human dignity, or kiss your Suburban goodbye, Homer.