Is Islam Compatible with Democracy?

by rifai92 (student)

Student Number: 600012806

“Is Islam compatible with democracy? In many ways the question is not whether Islam is compatible with democracy, but rather how Muslims can make these concepts compatible”. Islam, Islamist politics and democracy are not monolithic terms. They can, with no doubt, be understood in numerous ways. Accordingly, it needs to be made sure, that democracy and Islam can have diverse connotations for diverse people, making the mission of judging whether they are well-suited extremely challenging. In its traditional sense, democracy is ‘direct rule by the people’. The usual meaning of democracy used by many social experts often classifies it with “key features of the political conducts of the west, which, in turn, makes debates on democracy reflect the supremacy of the Western experience’’. This idea of democracy does not allow for the development of different forms of democracy that are linked to other specific social backgrounds and circumstances different to those in the West. Democracy, instead of being understood in routine terms, must be defined as a process, ‘development’ or ‘joint venture’, where the community can contribute to the circumstances and political settings of their lives. Democracy must be articulated in a way to uniform the main social, economic and political conditions it is in. Ergo, a single model of democracy cannot exist.

The fact that this essay question and others have revolved around the question of the compatibility of Islam and democracy shows that the starting point of any discussion of this issue is the divergence and incompatibility of the two. The mere fact that we say Islam and democracy and not, for example, Judaism and democracy or Christianity and democracy, shows that automatically we are assuming that the two are opposed to each other while we never doubt the compatibility of other religions and democracy. The question possess itself, is there really a divergence between Islam and democracy, or is it part of this new trend of ‘Islamophobia’ (fear of Islam) that we often hear about in the West. One rarely hears a debate on the compatibility of Islam and democracy in the Islamic world and does not hear that the reason there is no democracy in that region of the world is due to the religion of Islam. On the contrary, one hears that the solution to military rule and dictatorships can only be achieved through Islam.

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Islamist attitudes towards democracy vary. While Islam is considered to be a religion which directs all domains of life based on the Quran and trail of the prophet Mohammed, various features and issues within Islam are open to dialogue and can be understood in different ways. There are militant and radical opinions within the Islamic community that are definitely opposed to democracy which causes many to point out the dictatorial tendency in Muslim politics. However, this is only one perspective out of many and it is central to know that there are those who trust in democracy and the fact that it can coexist with Islam. Those who believe so state that within the Islamic tradition are concepts that ‘inspire a democratic organization of society’. These principles include Shura, Ijma and Ijtihad. These concepts can be viewed in ways that can reinforce the development of democracy in Muslim cultures. “The two processes (religious resurgence and democratization) are contradictory only if democracy is defined in a highly restricted way and is viewed as possible only if specific western European or American institutions are adopted, or if important Islamic principles are defined in an inflexible and traditional manner.”

The Quran says the following “and consult with them on the matter”, “… those who… conduct their affairs by mutual consultation”. Islam is the “pioneer in introducing the widely cherished concept of consultation in conducting common affairs”. Consultation is mentioned here as a significant pillar of the Islamic ‘way of life’. The weight of consultation in Islam is obvious and emphasized as well from the name of this Sura of the Qur'an which is "Al-Shura," which means Consultation. Directing the affairs of collective life without discussion is not just a way of ignorance, but a defilement of the law set by Allah in the Quran. There are now a rising number of opinions among Muslims who are strongly making the case that Islam and democracy are not just harmonious, but their interaction is unavoidable, because Islamic political structure is based on Shura or mutual consultation. (John Esposito)

Islamic institutions can be redefined to support democracy in the Islamic world. Let’s look closer at the principles of ijma (consensus) and ijtihad (‘independent interpretive judgment’). The notion of ijma or collective verdict of the public can be utilized to boost and further enhance the idea of an Islamic democracy as it enables the people to cast their opinion or vote on certain things. In the Sunni creed, consensus is regarded as a fundamental source of law and legal norms. Efforts in current years were endeavored to extend the concept of ijma so as to include a wider range of voices and opinions so that the jurists and ulema become but one component out of many. The implications of this line of thought, the thought that consensus should take into consideration the wider community, is that ijma can and would take on a new recognized, significant and official role where it would be associated with a communally assumed ijtihad. In addition, there is a vital argument that states that in the Quran there is no clear formulation of state institutions and that the legitimacy of such state institutions is derived from ijma, which implies that ‘consensus (ijma) can become both the legitimation and the procedure of an Islamic democracy’ and the ability of such an institution to legitimate majority rule. This would represent important shifts that have the potential of strengthening the process of Islamic democratization.

It is important to note that there are some scholars (both Muslim and non-Muslim) that take a negative view and claim that Islam cannot go hand in hand with democracy. Some state that historically the Muslim world has been under non-democratic rules for approximately thirteen centuries, beginning with the period of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. Consequently, democratic norms have not been associated with the Muslim world. Others (Muslim scholars) mainly believe that any notion of western origin (which they believe democracy is) is unacceptable. But going one step further, they argue that democracy and Islam are fundamentally incompatible because of the difference in the concept of sovereignty. The concept of Tawheed is recognized by traditional Muslims and non-Muslims as an obstacle to the development of an Islamic democracy. Why? Many believe that there is no place for democracy within Islamic political theory because of the firm adherence to God’s word and therefore the restrictions enforced on the role of the community. According to them, in Islam sovereignty belongs to God alone. “Human beings are only architects of His Will”.

It would be opportune here to give as an example an Islamic state which has shown great success in the implementation of a democratic system of government: The modern state of Turkey, which has managed to combine a secular system of government ruled by an Islamic political party. Turkey’s example exemplifies the overall recognition of democratic ideologies and ‘mechanisms’ (for example, elections) by the main political Islamist parties. Elections in Turkey have helped to increase the significance of an Islamic ideology that has to give to the social and political domains. More recently, one could also point to the example of Tunisia, which has just had elections and is in the process of forming an Islamic party lead government.

In conclusion, the complications and argued nature of both democracy and Islam along with the diverse means in which they are articulated makes the task of finding whether they are compatible very challenging and maybe beyond the capability of this essay. Nevertheless, what this essay has attempted to show is that any analysis of the compatibility between Islam and democracy should not be based on a narrow definition of either. Analysis should acknowledge their flexibility and adaptability and the diversity of actual experiences. A liberal conception of democracy is but one, and a militant/radical Islamist worldview is also but one. An important aspect on the debate surrounding the relationship between Islam and democracy often ignored in the literature is the ways in which Islamic principles and themes can be redefined and re-envisioned in ways that can accommodate and strengthen the process of democratization in Muslim countries. The concepts of shurah, ijma, ijtihad, and many others not included in this essay can be understood in a manner which empowers the Muslim community to take collective action while also broadening the scope of those included in decision-making procedures.

I believe that Islam is basically very compatible with democracy and the counter-arguments presented above are misleading and formed by a kind of rigid and inflexible label-orientation. I believe that the modern state system, with undemocratic rulers is the main impediment that stops an Islamic democracy. Otherwise, Islam has no fundamental institutions that undermine democracy, but rather institutions that strengthen the notion of democracy within the Muslim world. The word itself (democracy) has, for some, an implication of cultural colonialism. If you talk about representative government without the association of these institutions to the U.S, then it might just make perfectly good sense to a lot of Muslims.

Bibliography

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