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Students filled the Drescher Graduate Campus auditorium Tuesday to hear theologian, author and former U.S. ambassador Michael Novak discuss positive alternatives to tyranny for the peoples of the Middle East.
“Religion and Democracy: The Case for Islam” is the sixth lecture in the Pepperdine School of Public Policy’s series on “The Prospects for Democracy in the Middle East.”
Novak’s lecture is based on his most recent book, “The Universal Hunger for Liberty,” which seeks to discover common roots to bring together peoples of all three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — and suggest avenues for approaching a pressing agenda item for the 21st century.
“What is the case for the passive tendencies of democracies and the aggressive tendencies of tyrannies?” Novak asked to open his lecture.
In one hour, he responded to that question by giving a series of reasons. Among the reasons: the fundamental clash of Western and Islamic thought and resentment among Islamic peoples.
“Tyranny leads to abuse and aggression,” Novak said, accounting for resentment toward democratic nations who are ahead of the Arab world. “Moving democratic people to war is conspicuously more difficult. You can’t end terrorism simply by killing terrorists — you have to have positive alternatives.”
The alternative, said Novak, is providing an avenue for democracy in the Middle East so that people no longer feel resentment but hope.
“Insurgents are now being seen as a fringe group,” Novak said. “The minority that did not vote.”
This is good news, he said, for Afghanistan and Iraq.
When one student acknowledged the problem of the “Ugly American” image and asked how to spread liberty under it, Novak responded lightheartedly, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
“Iraqis know that if they’re going to succeed, they’re going to need each other,” Novak added. “Democracy is fragile and it depends on the will of the people.”
Students responded positively to Novak’s lecture.
“The most interesting thing about what he said, some of the deepest comments, were how he tried to find places in Islamic theology that could be building blocks for democracy,” said senior Samuel Hundland.
Novak’s book “The Universal Hunger for Liberty” can be purchased at the Drescher Campus bookstore.
For more information, visit www.michaelnovak.net.
Submitted 02-03-2005
MALIBU, CA
