Rulers flinch at the difficulties of democracy

The Telegraph (UK):

Democracy - much talked about but little practised in the Arab world - is a daunting prospect for regional leaders as they ponder the Iraqi elections. ...

Leaders have mostly done their worrying in private. But recently King Abdullah II, the reformist ruler of Jordan, voiced the anxiety felt by the mainly Sunni Muslim overlords of the region at the prospect of Shias taking power in Iraq.

The monarch resurrected the spectre of the creation of a "Shia crescent" that would overturn the religious and political balance of the area. Though the majority in Iraq, Shias have historically been subjugated by the Sunnis. ...

King Abdullah claimed later his words had been distorted. But the prospect of Iran, an aggressive exporter of the Shia faith, expanding its influence through its Iraqi Arab co-religionists, alarms even countries where there is no religious divide.

"You have to acknowledge that the fear is real," said a western official in Jordan. The real concern, he believes, is a "long-term stealth strategy" by the Persians of Iran to dominate the Arab world. ...

"They know better than anyone that it would not be just a civil war but a conflict that brought death to everyone's door," said George Hawatmeh, a Jordanian political analyst yesterday.

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