Arab Movements for Human Rights

The crisis in Algeria is still evolving as I write, but one thing is already clear: the army’s suppression of democracy in the name of democracy has posed the gravest dilemma for the human rights movement in the Arab world in the decade and-a-half of its existence. Rights activists knew they would have to confront such a quandary sooner or later, as they defended Islamic activists from state repression while praying that the persecuted would never be able to wield power.

This paradox is not unique to the Middle East. Human rights victims are often members of political movements that, given the chance, would stomp on the rights of others. Defending their civil liberties is comfortable so long as they remain far from power.