Islam, democracy and their shared founding principles

M. Ali, Manchester, UK

There is a real -- but perhaps surprising -- way in which the Muslim world could be identified as being highly compatible with that rather illusive thing called democracy.

Remarkable similarities exist between the ideals outlined by the founding fathers of the United States and the tenets at the heart of Islam.

America's founding fathers, who were vital to the historical development of democracy, wrote: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal."

Islam is also founded upon this ideal -- it recognizes no distinction of race or color, citizens or soldiers, rulers or subjects. All are equal under Islam.

Islam, too, has seen long periods during which tolerance and democratic principles prevailed. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims lived and prospered under Islamic rule for over a thousand years in North Africa, Spain, the Middle East and central and Southeast Asia. Freedom of religion has also been practiced in the Muslim world for more than a thousand years.

Critics would complain that, in the early 21st century, democracy ruled mostly in non-Muslim, as opposed to any Muslim, countries.

Perhaps, though, it would be better to recognize that in practice, democracy has not enjoyed a blossoming in Muslim countries -- but does this mean we should throw out the possibility of the principle working eventually?

Also, this criticism that say democracy is simply not a viable option in Muslim countries seems somewhat contradictory. After all, is it not the case that a key component -- not to say asset -- of the political ideology -- is often explained as its separating religion from politics? In so doing, democracy seeks to retain its cherished openness to diverse manifestations of humanity.

There are those, however, who believe democracy may work at different levels or in different systems of government. It is said that democracy may lead to a liberal system of government -- which is most likely to fall outside of Muslim edicts.

Then there may be a socialist system that may seem reasonable enough, but at another level, there may be a kind of democracy that permits the inclusion of religion in governance.

In truth, it would be hard to imagine many democratic forms of government in the 21st century that do not have at least a trace of religion in them. American presidents swear on a Bible during their inauguration, and few Western politicians would publicly reject God if they are running for office. Indeed, many attribute the close reelection of U.S. President George W. Bush to an overt effort to get the religious right to come out on election day.

Religion plays a role in democracy, whether desired or not, while others would argue that a theoretical divide between religion and politics is one of the key weaknesses of modern democracy.

Often a kind of spiritual or moral vacuum is identified in governments that have made an effort to remain religiously neutral. Islam regards the universe as a whole without dividing the world or separating body and spirit. With a world view as this, the interconnectedness of democracy and religion is acceptable and even logical.

Furthermore, Islam can be seen as compatible with democracy, because the very antithesis of democracy is a system in which political power is vested in one person or a minority group, such as dictatorships and monarchies.

In Islam, the sovereignty of God is absolute, and all Muslims reject any one person's claim to sovereignty. Such a claim would contradict the sovereignty of God, because all men are equal before God -- again, a very democratic principle. Under Islam, mankind are all created equal. Any system of government that proposed otherwise would thus not support Islamic principles -- or democratic principles -- and must be rejected.

Likewise, Islam defines a righteous person as one who manages their affairs through "mutual consultation" with others -- a concept that is an essential part of the democratic process.

One may wonder, however, whether mutual consultation has gone out the window these days in those countries known to be standard-bearers of democracy.

When Bush went to war with Iraq with only the barest of international support, the United Nations -- which must be surely the heart of democracy -- was effectively pushed aside. When the UN failed to back the U.S. through its democratic procedures, this was not considered important, and the U.S. dismissed the UN as weak and ineffective against a despot like Saddam.

It was a case of the world's supposed greatest democracy seemingly acting in an undemocratic way, which seems to indicate that the U.S. can be a minority on the world stage, but ignore the majority voice -- this seems to be democracy turned on its head.

Of course, democracy has been far from at home in many Muslim parts of the world.

The secularist, military regime of Saddam's Iraq is just one example of the extreme gap that exists between some parts of the Muslim world and democracy. Sudan, too, has presented the world with massive problems caused by a lack of humanity and democracy, while Turkey has persecuted its Kurdish minority and so slapped democracy in the face, yet Turkey has been a massive recipient of US arms.

The list of violent, dogmatic and despotic regimes in the Muslim world could go on, but then again, such wicked regimes have been prevalent throughout the non-Muslim world too. Occasionally, also, the Muslim world creates democratic surprises.

For example, many critics would say that Islam does not respect women and yet, the three nations with the largest Muslim populations -- Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan -- have all elected women heads of state; the U.S. trails in this regard.

Ultimately, neither democracy nor Islam can be considered ideologically monolithic, both have as varieties and a broad spectrum in both. But perhaps the key to both is that they are significant bodies of ideas, concepts and visions for understanding and guiding human life. If we treat and respect them as such, perhaps we will be better able to develop and apply them, illusive though they may be.

The writer is a senior researcher at the Cunningham Research Center, Manchester, UK. He can be reached at mali_uk@hotmail.com.