Freedom House, in its authoritative annual survey, “Freedom in the World,” reports:

The spread of democracy spurred by the end of the Cold War has made elected government the norm around the globe–except in Islamic countries. The new study shows that of the 47 countries with mostly Muslim populations, fewer than one quarter are ‘electoral democracies,’ while more than three quarters of the world’s other 145 governments are.

This is only the beginning of the disparity. Freedom House assesses whether a country is an electoral democracy and whether it is ‘free.” The latter is a much tougher standard. Not that Freedom House uses the term “democracy” loosely as some people ‘did in the old days of ‘people’s democracies.’ To be counted democratic a country must have fair and competitive elections. Still, many democracies, especially the new ones, have not yet firmly established the rule of law, due process, independence of the press, and the like, so they are counted by Freedom House as only ‘partly free.’ To qualify as ‘free,’ a country must have democratic elections as well as a gamut of civil liberties and citizens’ rights.

Lots of countries do meet this standard. Of the non-Muslim countries, 58 percent are ‘free’ and only 14 percent are ‘not free,’ i.e., strict dictatorships. The remaining 28 percent fall in that middling category of ‘partly free.’ But among the Muslim countries the proportions are reversed. Only one country–Mali–out of 47 ranks as free, 2 percent of the group. Thirty-eight percent are partly free, and a whopping 60 percent are ‘not free.’ The 47 Muslim-majority states, in other words, account for a majority of the world’s ‘not free’ states. [from Joshua Muravchik,The Weekly Standard, subscriber’s only]

Freedom: another Jewish Conspiracy ….? ‘Dunno. But Muravchik himself reaches certain conclusions, based on the report’s findings, that are worth reading over:

This climate of unfreedom is the swamp where terrorism breeds. The repression, humiliation, and violence that are the daily portion of people living under autocratic regimes nurture rage and fanaticism. And the absence of a free press seems to cause a kind of epistemological retardation conducive to paranoia and lunatic conspiracy theories (e.g., “the Mossad did it”). Moreover, the lack of democracy means not only that grievances go unaddressed but also that people fail to learn the virtues of moderation and compromise.

The implications of all this are quite different from what those who raise the issue of “root causes” intend. Far from pointing toward a relaxation of military efforts, it suggests that the more terror-loving tyrannies the United States can topple the better. Not only will their demise clear the ground where seeds of freedom may then take root, but the example will embolden and inspire those who dream of freedom in the region.

Obligatory rebuttal from the Arab street: “‘Epistemological retardation conducive to paranoia,’ you say? Nonsense. Who sent you — was it the Zionists?”

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