HUMAN Rights Watch’s criticism of western policies towards the Arab world makes eminent sense, seen in the light of Ali Abdullah Saleh’s final departure from Yemen and the victory of Islamist parties in the Egyptian elections. Mr Saleh left for the US on Sunday after apologising to his people for “any shortcomings” — a gross understatement, for he leaves behind him a nation in tatters after a civil war which killed nearly 2,000 people. It was during his rule that Al Qaeda managed to consolidate itself and bring more territories under its influence. In Tunisia, post-Ben Ali elections last October led to the victory of an Islamist party, Ennahda, a phenomenon also witnessed in neighbouring Morocco. In Egypt, however, the victory of the Islamist parties has been sweeping after results finally became available on Sunday. The Muslim Brotherhood, taking part in the polls as the Freedom and Justice Party, won 48 per cent of the seats, while (Salafist) Al Nur grabbed 25 per cent of parliamentary seats in the first post-Mubarak elections. Together, they captured two-thirds of the assembly’s seats.

We do not know what results the Libyan elections, as yet uncertain, will produce, and how Syria will go if and when President Bashar al-Assad falls. But there is no doubt that the absence of all avenues of dissent throughout the Arab world for decades helped not the liberal parties but the Islamist ones, which because of better organisation and motivated cadres managed to increase their influence with the people. The 676-page HRW report attributes highly negative motives to western democracies’ Arab policies. Briefly, it says western policies were guided by a fear of political Islam, and this made them rely on secular dictators to ensure regional stability, secure uninterrupted oil supplies, maintain peace with Israel, stifle migration to the West and crush Islamist parties. The report considers this policy counterproductive, and asks the West to accept the change which the Arab Spring has wrought, adopt pro-people policies and “abandon the autocrats and embrace rights”.

The victorious Islamist parties, too, must heed this advice. Now that the people have voted for them, it is time they themselves respected human rights and refrained from persecuting dissenters in the name of ‘ideology’. What led to the collapse of Arab dictatorships was their weak foundation, which rested on force. The Islamist parties must respect the rights of all people, including the minorities and those who differ with them. Otherwise, dictatorship in the name of religion will produce conditions no different than what prevailed before the Arab Spring.