Theme:
2004 Seeds of Reform in the Arab World
Will They Flourish?
Freedom House Condemns Arab Countries' Political Record
In its 2004 Annual Report, Freedom House reported that Arab
countries currently lag behind the rest of the international community with
respect to the political, economic and social freedoms exercised by their
citizens. The report surveyed 192 countries measuring the level of freedom
attained in each on a seven point index. The index categorized countries according
to three classifications: the free ?those with a wide range of exercisable
freedoms scored from 1 to 2.5; the partially free ? being those countries
attaining a partial range of exercisable freedoms scored from 3 to 5; and
the unfree? being those countries that allow a very restricted ranges of freedom
scored from 5.5 to 7.
Among Arab countries, Kuwait received the lowest or best score of 4.5 despite
the fact that women in Kuwait still do not have the right to vote ? in contrast
to many other Arab countries. Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen and Morocco scored 5,
coming in last in the category of countries that allow partial freedoms for
their citizens. Tunisia, Mauritania, Algeria, Lebanon and Oman received scores
of 5.5, while Egypt, Iraq, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates scored 6. Libya,
Syria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia received the highest or worst score of 7.
Despite the poor scores of the Arab countries, the report indicates modest
improvement in some, such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Qatar. Thus the report
notes that Egyptian civil society organizations have been strengthened, especially
those dealing with women's rights; that the Jordanian regime has given more
relative freedom to the media and to women's groups; that Morocco passed a
new law pertaining to family relations that improved women's rights; and that
Qatar allowed for more academic freedom. All these positive changes improved
the civil rights of citizens, but no similar improvements were reported in
the political domains.
Israel was the only country in the region which the Freedom House report classified
as free. Considering its severe discrimination against Arab citizens and the
government's restrictions on reports coming out of Israel, this classification
of Israel reflects a good measure of political bias on the part of Freedom
House which is an institution representing an American neo-conservatism viewpoint,
and is not above using its reports to apply pressure on countries considered
to be in opposition to the political and religious agenda and interests of
the American neo-conservatives. A case in point is Freedom House's stress
that "The right of missionaries to convert citizens to Christianity" is a
central indicator of freedom; and it bemoans its absence in Arab countries
while ignoring that Israel denies that freedom and consistently gives it a
good scores on the index. The Freedom House's relationship to the Jewish lobby
partially explains the differential position that Israel enjoys in most of
Freedom H ouse's reports. The influence of the Jewish lobby is also evident
by the fact that a congressional bill calling for the imposition of sanctions
on countries that repress religious freedoms, which was initially supported
by Freedom House, failed to pass.
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