The news reports of the recent election in Pakistan emphasized the decisive defeat of President Musharraf. Unfortunately, not enough attention has been paid to the dramatic defeat of the radical Islamist parties.
The parties sympathetic to al Qaeda and the Taliban saw their share of the ballots plummet from 11% in the last election to 3% in the most recent balloting. The United Assembly for Action (MMA), the largest Islamist coalition, lost electoral control of the Northwest Frontier Province – one of Pakistan’s four provinces and the only one previously under Islamist governance. Despite large infusions of financial resources from Tehran and rich sympathizers in neighboring Muslim countries, the MMA was pummeled at the polls.

This devastating electoral defeat of Islamic radicals should only have been surprising to the radicals themselves, who have the unfortunate habit of believing their own propaganda. In recent years the Islamist share of the vote in fairly-contested elections has stagnated or declined in country after country. In Jordan, for instance, in last November’s elections, the Islamic Action Front suffered a catastrophic defeat, dropping from 15% to 5% support in 4 years.
In Afghanistan, where voters know the Taliban better than anywhere else, Islamist groups (including former Taliban) have never topped 11% support in national elections. During the 2007 general election in Algeria, the two Islamist parties generated just under 12% support from voters.
In Malaysia, the Islamist parties have never topped 11% support and in Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, Islamist groups have never come close to even 20% support in general elections.
These countries are just a few of the examples of the fact that when given the opportunity, majority Muslim countries embrace free elections, and when they exercise their franchise, they do not choose radical Islamist candidates to represent them. That is why the radicals try to murder and terrorize their way to power – like all totalitarians, they don’t do well in the democratic process.
Could the Bush doctrine of promoting free and fair elections in Muslim majority countries – actually be working?
And if it is, would the President’s domestic critics admit it?