Introduction to Chapter 5

The Question of

Compatibility

 
"Non-Muslims should understand that democratic values are latent in Islamic thought if one wants to look for them, and that it would be more natural and organic for the Muslim world to derive contemporary liberal practices from its own sources than to import them wholesale from foreign cultures"

Following the 9/11 attacks, there is much debate in the Western media about compatibility and incompatibility of Islam and democracy. There are superficial and biased analyses, which just scratch the surface of the issue in an attempt to justify one or another preconceived ideas.

Before agreeing to one or another point of view the author discusses the issue in detail to show what principles of democracy are the Western analysts and their allies among Muslims comparing with Islam and also if we are not comparing two incomparable in the first place.

This chapter also looks if democratization for the Muslim world means implementation of the same principles and values, which make democracy acceptable, in the first place, or there are different standards applied. The author traces back the roots of present confusion.

The discussion started back, just after the end of the Cold War. In 1992, when the campaign against Islam was reshaping, Amos Perlmutter, a leading light in US foreign policy, had no hesitation in writing in the Washington Post "Is Islam, fundamentalist or otherwise, compatible with liberal, human rights-oriented, Western-style, representative democracy? The answer is clearly no."4

It was the time when the US and its "democratic" allies chose to shut their eyes on abrupt suspension of elections in Algeria and used a massive military operation to restore the Emir of Kuwait to his throne....

An extensive discussion follows on the cultural assessment of Islam, the so called democratization process and different components of Islamic faith in the light of contemporary discussion and attempts to fit Islam into democratic design.

...The latest American occupations and its cluelessness about the kind of government that would work in occupied lands have forced it to engage Muslims for proving that democracy is not compatible with Islam unless Muslims embrace the principles that have brought democracy closer to its demise.

Some Muslims feel marveled when they find a tenet of Islam matching the concept of democracy and proudly declare that Islam is compatible with democracy. Similarly, others quickly reject Islam when it challenges the godlessness and spiritually bankrupt aspect of democracy. In fact, if we take out the goodness of democracy, we will see that the Qur’an identified all these social and political values 1500 years ago. Khaled Abou El Fadl has rightly identified these values as, "pursuing justice through social cooperation and mutual assistance (the Qur’an 49:13; 11:119); establishing a non-autocratic, consultative method of governance; and institutionalizing mercy and compassion in social interactions (6:12, 54; 21:107; 27:77; 29:51; 45:20)."8 Yet these fine values can never be fostered in an environment that throws religion out of the public square....

From here onwards the author discusses the issues raised by John L. Esposito, Khaled Abou El Fadl and others and put their view to test by providing hard facts, using commonsense logic and giving references from the authentic sources of Islam.

The misconceptions spread under the banner of political Islam and the "need" for secularization and reinterpretation of Islam for making it compatible with the US-approved  form of democracy are addressed in the next part of the chapter. He the author gives an idea about the kind of governance mechanism that would rise from "the ashes of corrupted democracy."

Finally the author exposes the reasons and objectives behind presenting Islam as incompatible with democracy or vice versa and concludes the discussion with references from authentic sources to support his point of view.



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