By Nawab Khan
BRUSSELS, April 4 (KUNA) -- Like the rest of the world, Europe was also caught by surprise by the wave of revolts and uprisings that broke out last year in North Africa, dubbed as the Arab Spring.
In the last four decades sweeping democratic changes were witnessed in Sothern Europe, Latin America and Eastern Europe but many westerners regarded the Arab world as too stagnated, resilient to any change and resistant to the idea of democracy.
Following the 9/11 attacks in the US, western government reinforced their policies towards the Arab world that aimed at containment of political Islam, protecting western interests and supporting authoritarian regimes, thus undermining Europe's own agenda to spread democracy and human rights across the globe.
The tectonic changes in the Arab world last year came as a wake-up call for Europe but they also happened at an inopportune time for the EU whose foreign policy has been relegated to a secondary role due the severe economic crisis.
However, a number of conferences, seminars, book launches are taking place in Brussels these days to take stock and examine how Europe has responded and adapted to the situation one year after the Tunisian fruit seller Mohammad Bouazizi triggered the widespread change in the southern shores of the Mediterranean.
While the future structure of European policies towards the region is still in the making a major re-think has emerged with European leaders publicly admitting that past policies centred on short-term western interests and security and immigration management were wrong and a failure.
Speaking recently in the European Parliament, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and the European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule declared that "our policy in the region had not always been right." "I still think we can all benefit from a constant reality check as to whether our policies and instruments are fully able to respond to the historical challenges," he noted.
But yet, EU policy towards the Arab world remains ambiguous and in dilemma. On the one hand EU leaders are applauding the democratic changes in the Arab world but at the same time fears and concerns are being voiced that Islamic parties would come to power and adopt anti-western agendas.
Recognizing this tendency that could lead towards more anti-Islamic xenophobia in Europe, Fulle called on Europeans to shed their fear of Islam.
"And as new leaderships emerge, Europe must not be afraid of the electoral successes of political actors inspired by Islam. In fact, it would be an error to send signs of mistrust towards the democratically elected governments," he stressed.
However, EU institution are repeating their past mistakes by inviting mainly liberal and secular thinkers and analysts from the Arab world to Brussels to speak on the Arab awakening whose analyses and views are not much different from their European counterparts as far as Islam and Muslims are concerned. A prominent European analyst and writer, Alvaro de Vasconcels, director of the EU Institute for Security Studies, (EUISS) has highlighted this point in his recently published book "Listening to unfamiliar voices. The Arab Democratic wave." He notes that "it is Europe's difficulty with Islam that explains the hesitation and ambiguity and even hostility towards the democratic wave in North Africa." He states that the changes in the Arab world have raised "doubts about the impact on European interests in the region of the rise of power of Islamist forces." Alvaro de Vasconcels urges Europeans to "listen to these unfamiliar voices and acknowledge their legitimacy. These are the voices who need to recover their dignity. These may not be less democratic but they will certainly be more autonomous." The EUISS has also made a new start by inviting two representatives of the Islamic movement, one from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the other from the al-Nahda from Tunisia, to speak at its book launch in the Belgian capital.
On her part, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has appealed for "mutual trust," between the new political actors in the Arab world and Europe and warned that "lumping all Islamists into one and the same category is misleading and unhelpful." (end) nk.asa KUNA 040956 Apr 12NNNN