Saad Eddin Ibrahim (Egyptian-American sociologist; "father of Egyptian civil society"; jailed under Mubarak) — from his article "Toward Muslim Democracies" (via New Lines): his signature argument for the democratic INCLUSION of Islamists — "enlist Islamists under the flag of democracy" — rather than their exclusion. Coiner of "jumlukiya"; democracy as the cure for both tyranny and fundamentalism.

it will be better for us as democrats, for the Islamists, and for Egypt to enlist Islamists under the flag of democracy.

[Source is English. content_original is a verbatim quote from Saad Eddin Ibrahim's own article "Toward Muslim Democracies," as quoted and attributed to him by New Lines Magazine (the cited source_url, where the verbatim is confirmed); he wrote prolifically in English. published_date left NULL: the underlying article's exact date is not established — not fabricated.] Declared position of Saad Eddin Ibrahim (1938–2024) — the pioneering Egyptian-American sociologist, founder of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, and the figure most associated with reviving Egypt's research-based CIVIL SOCIETY movement; a relentless advocate of Arab DEMOCRATIZATION who was imprisoned under Mubarak (2000–2003) on politicized charges. His core argument was that strengthening civil society is the precondition for Arab democracy, and that democracy is the answer BOTH to authoritarianism AND to the appeal of religious fundamentalism. Distinctively — against the prevailing secularist view that Islamists must be excluded — he argued for their DEMOCRATIC INCLUSION: "it will be better for us as democrats, for the Islamists, and for Egypt to enlist Islamists under the flag of democracy." He coined the satirical term JUMLUKIYA ("republic-monarchy") to skewer Arab presidents grooming their sons as dynastic heirs (e.g. Mubarak/Gamal), argued that Arab regimes exploited the conflict with Israel as a pretext for authoritarian rule, and sharply criticized Western complicity — lamenting (to Truthdig) that "Washington under President Obama is conducting old-style foreign policy with Arab tyrants from Libya's Moammar Gadhafi to Syria's Bashar Assad." This is the ARAB LIBERAL-DEMOCRATIZATION INTELLECTUAL / CIVIL-SOCIETY-THEORIST pole — a distinct TYPE (the scholar-public-intellectual) advancing inclusive democracy as the cure for both tyranny and extremism, distinct from the activists and the politicians. [Axes: democracy (Arab democratization; civil society; inclusive democracy; anti-jumlukiya/dynastic-succession), religion-state (democratic inclusion of Islamists rather than exclusion; democracy vs both authoritarianism and fundamentalism), west-alignment (critique of Western support for Arab autocrats), civil-liberties (human rights; against authoritarian repression).]