Daily Times

In his historical survey Democracy in America (1831), Alexis de Tocqueville (the French political thinker and historian) discussed what he calls the “great political problem of our times”. The “organisation and the establishment of democracy in Christendom”, according to him, “is the great political problem of our times”. This almost two centuries old observation reminds us, in the words of Dr Nader Hashemi (of the University of Denver) that the “problem of religion’s relationship with democracy is not an exclusively Muslim phenomenon” but one of those problems that other religions and religious traditions — Christianity in particular — “have had to struggle with” in the past.

Dr Hashemi, commenting on this observation by Tocqueville, from a Muslim point of view in the 21st century, argues that to the extent that Tocqueville’s observation is correct, it could be extrapolated that in the same sense that the “great political problem” facing Europe in the 19th century was a question of democracy in Christian lands, in the same way in the 21st century, arguably “the great problem of our time is the establishment and organisation of democracy in the Muslim world”.

Not only in the 21st century has the issue of the compatibility of religion and democracy or otherwise (in the Islamic world) been discussed. From the final decades of the 20th century and from the 1990s especially, there has been a growing tendency in debates and discussions to question the relationship between Islam and democracy, or the compatibility and coexistence of the teachings of Islam with the principles of democracy. After the events of 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror, this issue came to be discussed with much fervour. In this period, Islam has been frequently described as a “violent” and “terrorist” religion, unconcerned with peace, human rights, justice, tolerance, pluralism and democratic values. This has provoked widespread discussion (within and outside the Muslim world) on this question. With the Arab Spring — the uprisings and protests for the promotion of democracy and dignity in the Middle East and North Africa from December 2010 — these issues have become focal points of worldwide public debate, in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, the west and the rest of the world.

Generally speaking, one finds two main ‘poles’ that have extensively debated and discussed this issue: rejectionists and supporters. On one side, there is an opponent group, including various western academics as well as extremists and hardline Islamists who believe that Islam and democracy are totally incompatible. Among the various western scholars and writers — varied but marginal — who have made attempts to argue that both are irreconcilable and contradictory, there are Bernard Lewis, Francis Fukuyama (famous for his book The End of History), Benjamin Barber, Robert Kaplan, Ernest Gellner, Daniel Pipes and, most influentially, Samuel P Huntington (known for his self-evident thesis in The Clash of Civilisations). All of them and others collectively reinforce and strengthen the idea that the Muslim faith and Islamic civilisation are incongruent and incompatible with liberty, democracy, human rights, gender equality and other emancipating principles.

On the other hand, there are a growing number of intellectuals, both Muslims and non-Muslims — the proponents — who have called for compatibility between Islamic socio-political concepts, institutions and western democracy. The prominent academicians who have written (and are writing) extensively and optimistically on the compatibility between the two include Professors John Esposito, John Voll, Dale Eickelman, James Piscatori, Noah Feldman, Abdulaziz Sachedina, Asef Bayat, Khaled Abou el-Fadl, Abdelwahab el-Affendi, Abdou Filali-Ansary, M A Muqtedar Khan and Nader Hashemi.

Based upon — of course, with modern (re)interpretations and (re)readings — the Quran and Sunnah (traditions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)), there are ample and abundant interpretations that have been fully developed by those who promote the ideals of democracy and human rights in the Muslim world. The majority of moderate Muslim intellectuals of both Muslim and non-Muslim countries adhere to democratic principles based upon their (re)interpretations of the Quran.

Engaging in a process of reform, the proponents argue for the compatibility of Islam and democracy by pointing to traditional Islamic concepts like shura (mutual consultation) between ruler and ruled, ijma (community consensus), ijtihad (personal reasoning), bayah (oath of allegiance), mas?lah?a (public welfare) and other such ideas and ideals that have roots in the primary sources of Islam. These mechanisms can be used to support parliamentary forms of government with systems of checks and balances among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. For example, Professors John Esposito and John Voll (authors of Islam and Democracy) say: “Consultation (shura), consensus (ijma) and ijtihad (independent reasoning) are crucial concepts for the articulation of Islamic democracy within the framework of the oneness of God (tawhid) and the representational obligations of human beings (khilafah),” which provide “an effective foundation for understanding the relationship between Islam and democracy in the contemporary world”.

On the basis of these interpretations, the majority of modernist or reformist Muslim intellectuals insist on compatibility between Islam and democracy with a reinterpretation of key Islamic political concepts and values, institutions and legal principles, embedded in the primary sources of Islam, albeit democracy here is conceived of with certain qualifications and limits prescribed by shariah (religious law). Thus, taking into consideration the ‘spirit’ rather than merely the ‘process’ of democracy, it is quite feasible and reasonable to propose that the relationship between Islam and democracy, “complex and nuanced as it may be, is not inherently problematic even by western standards”. At the same time, no one is arguing for the wholesale adoption of western democracy and hence it is safe to conclude that while there are important and profound differences between Islam and democracy, a synthesis of sorts between the two is eminently possible.

The writer is an Iqbal Fellow at the Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue (IRD), International Islamic University Islamabad. He can be reached at tahir.tauseef@yahoo.com