“Are Democracy and Traditional Arab Political Culture Compatible? Saudi Academic Weighs In”

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – The Saudi academic, Turki Al-Hamad, touched on the issue of modern democratic culture and its compatibility with the dominant traditional political culture in the Arab world.

This came in a series of tweets by Al-Hamad, where he said: “I no longer have the slightest doubt that ‘democracy’ in the Arab world has become entrenched with the same tendencies that it was supposed to come to eliminate, such as tribalism, sectarianism, and the like. Democracy is a comprehensive system before it is a political system extracted from the bowels of a political system in which cultural conditions may be more fulfilled.

He continued, saying: “Frankly speaking, the dominant traditional Arab political culture, which emanates from a broader and broader Arab culture, is not compatible at all with the modern democratic culture with its contradictory foundations…”

He added, “Yes, we need the values ​​of cultural and societal democracy, such as the values ​​of equality, tolerance, and individual rights, but we do not need a hybrid political system applied in its name, of which it is innocent.”