Within the last several years, religious parties in the Arab world have decisively defeated their secular opponents, as Islamist lamist candidates have proved successful at the polls. In Iraq's general elections in late 2005, the religious Shiite alliance won 128 of 275 seats.34 In the Palestinian territories' first elections in a decade, Hamas overwhelmingly defeated the secular ruling party, Fatah. In Egypt, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood won an unprecedented one-fifth of parliament's seats. In Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a landslide victory in the November 2002 parliamentary elections - something of a rarity in the secular republic. The AKP won a majority in parliament, 363 seats, which was just four short of the plurality ity needed to rewrite the constitution drawn up by the secular vanguard army generals after the coup in 1980.35 Islamists performed formed strongly in Saudi Arabia's 2005 polls, with moderate Islamists winning all the seats on the municipal councils in the cities of Mecca and Medina.36 However, the situation has recently changed. Post 9/11, rulers ers from Egypt to Uzbekistan are using the threat of al-Qaeda and global terrorism to brand any and all opposition as extremist, ist, to control elections, and to legitimize their authoritarian governments. For example, although Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak promised to repeal Egypt's infamous emergency laws when he ran for re-election in Egypt's first-ever contested presidential idential election in 2005, he reneged on the promise because of "security" concerns. Egyptians must remember that they live in an inflamed region, said Mubarak. "We have to appreciate that Egypt, from time to time, is targeted."37 The emergency laws, which have been in place since Mubarak came to power in 1981, allow arbitrary arrests and detentions.
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