Ayoon Wa Azan (Islam is compatible with democracy)

I was provoked by the following question: Is Islam an obstacle to democracy; i.e. is it compatible with it? Nevertheless, I did not link it to previous campaigns, mostly pursued by American Likudniks, which had questioned the existence of the Prophet of Islam, because the question came as part of a report published by the New York Times – a liberal newspaper that knows better than becoming mired in a religious campaign. The report contained the views of six experts, and I shall quote some of what I read. But I will first state my opinion, as I dare say I am an expert on the topic. I had studied Islamic religion at university as part of my master’s thesis on Arabic literature, and continued learning about this topic even after university, with the rise of terrorist extremist groups. I also read the Torah extensively, and I can thus make comparisons with an academic background on my subject matter. My opinion, hence, is that Islam is indeed compatible with democracy, but that many Muslims are undemocratic. Meanwhile, the views of the experts chosen by the American newspaper included the following: - Omid Safi, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, said that there may not be an “Islamic democracy” any more than there can be a “Christian democracy” in America that privileges Christians over non-Christians or a “Jewish democracy” that privileges Jewish citizens of Israel over Palestinians, but there can be, and there must be a democracy of Muslims who live side by side with their neighbors. - Richard Bulliet, a professor of history at Columbia University, said that if democracy is to be born in the Arab world, then religious political parties must be the midwives. He said that Iran was a failed model of democracy, and asked whether Islam was compatible with democracy, to which his answer was “decidedly so.” - Ed Husain, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that Islam is what Muslims make it. With the tensions between Western democracies and Muslim sensitivities on freedom of speech, he added, several important Arab countries are writing their constitutions, on a journey toward democracy. We will see how far they can travel, Husain concluded. - Jerusha Tanner Lamptey, assistant professor of Islam and ministry, made a reference to the Mithaq al-Madinah, the Contract of Medina that the Prophet had used to rule Medina where he equated among the various communities. She said there are many examples of the compatibility of Islam with democracy. - Robert Kaplan, a geopolitical analyst, said that Islam is not incompatible with democracy, arguing that major Islamic societies in South and Southeast Asia practice it. He also said that Turkey is the model for this, where the government is both Islamic and democratic. - Reza Aslan, an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California, seemed to have been angered by the question, which he said was nonsensical, because the five most populous Muslim countries in Asia were all democracies. He added that religion did not promote love or hatred, or war or peace, or indeed democracy or fascism, but that it was the adherents of religions who did so, and then go on to look for justification in their religion for any question they may want to ask. I have no objection to anything mentioned above. The individuals who voiced these views are experts in their chosen fields, and what I will add is motivated by the fact that this column is usually translated to English and read abroad. For this reason, I will reiterate some facts that most Muslims already know. In the Quran, there are two references to the notion of Shura, [Arabic for Consultation], namely “and take counsel with them in the affair” (Al-Imran: 159); and “[they] (conduct) their affairs by mutual consultation among themselves” (Al-Shura: 38.) Shura is hence two kinds, vertical between the ruler and the ruled, and horizontal among the citizenry itself. This is indeed the quintessence of democracy, and the basis of Athenian thinking upon which modern Western democracies were built. Some participants in the NYT’s report mentioned Muslim democracies in East Asia, which indirectly means that Arab Muslims are undemocratic. So maybe those Arab Muslims in the countries that have chosen Islamist parties to rule them are on the path to democracy. This premise about Arabs may be true. Every Arab ruler is a dictator, whether he is religious or secular. This, however, is not the fault of religion, which explicitly enshrines Shura, as practiced by the Prophet, his companions and the Medinan citizens that helped him. Instead, it is the fault of the ruler, who exploits religion to establish a dictatorship, and the fault of the ruled, who accepts this. I worked for 30 years in the dialogue of Islam and the West with Prince Charles, Crown Prince of Britain, and Prince Hassan when he was Crown Prince of Jordan, in London, and then in Davos. These efforts also involved Prince Turki al-Faisal, then Princess Lulua Al-Faisal, in addition to Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and many priests and rabbis. The dialogue has since been halted, but the summary of my experience is that Islam is better than Muslims.  -- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.