Connecting With Muslims Requires Embracing Democracy

The Washington Post editorial staff urges President Obama to address human rights and democracy in his speech next week in Egypt, arguing that “real partnership between the United States and the Muslim world will require the common embrace of values such as freedom of speech and religion, free elections, and the renunciation of torture.” The administration has backed away from democracy promotion after the failure of President Bush’s “Freedom Agenda,” but avoiding the issue of democracy will not endear America to Muslim societies. “If it chooses to uncritically embrace autocrats such as Mr. Mubarak — as it has so far — the administration … will accomplish the opposite of what Mr. Obama intends, by alienating a young generation of Arabs and Muslims that despises the old order and demands the freedoms that have spread everywhere else in the world.”

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