A year after his death, Vaclav Havel would find much in the world to worry about, especially in his homeland.

Havel's Legacy, Forsaken?

by Katerina Safarikova

Vaclav Havel died a year ago yesterday, so some Czechs are naturally talking about how the former president, dissident, and champion of human rights would see the world today. Would he still wear that iconic smile, shy yet savvy?

Certainly, he would welcome the political opening in Burma and the April election of Aung San Suu Kyi, its leading pro-democracy figure, to parliament after spending most of the past 20 years under house arrest. So too the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama and the scores of young people in the Arab world who continue to demand their rights in the face of autocrats.

And yet Havel would be uneasy with signs that Islamists are gaining influence in the power vacuum left by the Arab Spring.

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