{"id":7290,"date":"2012-01-22T20:58:58","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T18:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/01\/rights-group-urges-west-to-get-over-islamist-aversion\/"},"modified":"2012-01-22T20:58:58","modified_gmt":"2012-01-22T18:58:58","slug":"rights-group-urges-west-to-get-over-islamist-aversion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rights-group-urges-west-to-get-over-islamist-aversion\/","title":{"rendered":"Rights group urges West to get over Islamist aversion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* US, EU have been inconsistent in supporting Arab Spring<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* HRW: West should stop supporting Arab autocrats<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* AU has been &#8220;shamefully complacent&#8221; about Arab Spring<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Louis Charbonneau<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) &#8211; Western democracies<br \/>\nshould overcome their aversion to Islamist groups that enjoy<br \/>\npopular support in North Africa and the Middle East and<br \/>\nencourage them to respect basic rights, Human Rights Watch said<br \/>\nin a report on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>HRW executive director Kenneth Roth said in the group&#8217;s<br \/>\nannual report that the past year&#8217;s Arab Spring pro-democracy<br \/>\nuprisings across the region have shown it is vital for the West<br \/>\nto end its policy of backing &#8220;an array of Arab autocrats&#8221; in<br \/>\nexchange for supporting Western interests.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The West should also be more consistent in supporting<br \/>\npro-democracy forces in the Arab world and elsewhere, he said in<br \/>\nHRW&#8217;s 690-page report on human rights abuses worldwide.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The international community must &#8230; come to terms with<br \/>\npolitical Islam when it represents a majority preference,&#8221; he<br \/>\nsaid. &#8220;Islamist parties are genuinely popular in much of the<br \/>\nArab world, in part because many Arabs have come to see<br \/>\npolitical Islam as the antithesis of autocratic rule.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Wherever Islam-inspired governments emerge, the<br \/>\ninternational community should focus on encouraging, and if need<br \/>\nbe pressuring, them to respect basic rights &#8211; just as the<br \/>\nChristian-labeled parties and governments of Europe are expected<br \/>\nto do,&#8221; he said in the introduction to the report.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* US, EU have been inconsistent in supporting Arab Spring * HRW: West should stop supporting Arab autocrats * AU has been &#8220;shamefully complacent&#8221; about Arab Spring By Louis Charbonneau NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) &#8211; Western democracies should overcome their aversion to Islamist groups that enjoy popular support in North Africa and the Middle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}