Davos: New leaders from the countries of the Arab Spring sought to reassure their western counterparts at the Davos forum that the rise of Islamist parties poses no threat to democracy.
Last year, when a wave of popular revolt swept the Middle East and North Africa, many in the West hoped it might herald a victory for liberalism.
Instead, wherever free elections have been held, well-organised Islamist parties have been the big winners, leading some to fear that the tyranny of secular autocrats might be replaced by repressive theocracy.
But Arab ministers and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in the snowbound Swiss ski resort of Davos insisted the Islamist parties pose no threat to the region's fledgling multiparty systems.
"There is no contradiction between democracy and Islam," said Mohammad Najeeb Boulif, Morocco's minister of administration and a member of the country's new Islamist majority party, the Justice and Development Party.
As an example of his Islamist group's supposed moderation, Boulif noted that his was the only party to appoint a female minister to the coalition cabinet.
Peaceful transition
Tunisia's Foreign Minister Rafik Abdul Salam said his country's relatively peaceful transition towards elected Islamist-led rule after the turbulent days of revolution was a sign that the future looked bright.
"We confirmed in Tunisia by reality that it is possible to be Arab, Muslim and a democrat. So I think that Islamists are political actors like any other participants," he said.
"If we have a good democratic system we will have a moderate expression of Islam," he said, citing the overt religiosity of American political figures as an example of religion working safely within a pluralist system.
"In the United States there is a separation between church and state but, in the public sphere, religion is very active, and I think this is what will happen in the Middle East," he argued.
