| Islam and Politics | |
| 21 Sep 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| Arab Spring Proves Islam is fully Compatible with Democracy: Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed tells UNHRC | |
Maldives President, Mohamed Nasheed |
http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamAndPolitics_1.aspx?ArticleID=5529 | ||
While invited to speak as a President, I stand before the Council as a protester and as someone who has spent much of his adult life speaking out against leaders who placed their own interests over those of their people. Recent events across North Africa and the Middle East represented a defining geopolitical moment, comparable to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a time of awakening, a moment when Muslims across the world were standing up as one to demand equality, human rights, democracy and the rule of law. These developments provided a fitting rebuttal to those inside and outside of Islam, who claimed that Islam was not compatible with democracy. The determination of protesters in Tunis, Cairo, Benghazi and Homs had provided a lens through which it was possible to perceive that all people, no matter whether where they were born or which religion they followed, wanted the same thing: dignity and freedom. 2011 would be seen as a tipping point for peaceful protesters, as the moment when the balance of power swung irreversibly from the state to the streets. -- President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed in his keynote speech to the UN Human Rights Council’s Eighteenth session in Geneva on 16th September 2011. -- 
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