Abstract :
President Bush’s notions that democratizing Iraq will have a ripple effect on the rest of
the Arab world, bringing prosperity and peace to the region, and that democracy is the panacea
for Islamic terrorism are unsubstantiated as well as grossly misleading. Even a cursory review of
the Arab political landscape indicates that the rise of democracy will not automatically translate
into the establishment of enduring liberal democracies or undermine terrorism in the region. The
same conclusion may be generally made for the Muslim political landscape. In fact, given the
opportunity to compete freely and fairly in elections, Islamic extremist organizations will most
likely emerge triumphant. In the recent elections in Lebanon and Egypt, Hezbollah and the
Muslim Brotherhood respectively,
