Muslim countries declared ready for democracy
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Despite its shortcomings, democracy is the most suitable form of governance in Muslim countries and should be implemented, even if some people are not ready, scholars say.
International Muslim scholars gathering here for a two-day seminar came to a conclusion on Tuesday that learning from the success stories of Muslim countries with a democratic system, such as Indonesia, it was possible in Muslim societies albeiet limited to electoral democracy.
"Democracy means a process of wide public participation to decide what is best for the people...it enables the rule of law, (equal) treatment of minorities, openness and tolerance of public expression," they explained at the conclusion of the seminar jointly organized by the International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP) and the Asia Foundation.
They stressed that electoral democracy was the foot-in-the- door ahead of a full democracy.
Rector of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Azyumardi Azra pointed out that if Indonesia could do it, others could also. "Islam and democracy are not completely incompatible. The prospect of democracy is not really bleak in Muslim countries," he said.
Some of the scholars were concerned about the fact that very few Muslim countries were democratic and most were authoritarian.
Amin Saikal of the Australian National University (ANU) criticized a number of countries in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman as examples of authoritarian regimes, which stymied democracy and gave the impression that Muslim societies were not ready for democracy.
"When prompted to democratic reforms, a majority of leaders have done so on a highly selective and exclusive basis and within procedural frameworks, which have not substantially affected their personal, family or elite powers," Saikal said.
Among the scholars taking part in the seminar was Patricia Martinez of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Muhammad Khalid Masud of Allama Iqbal University in Pakistan and Khalid Abou El Fadl of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
The scholars agreed that the key to the implementation of democracy in Muslim countries was the existence of moderate organizations, which could play important roles in giving an interpretation of Islam that was hospitable to democracy.
Experts have credited Indonesia's two largest moderate Muslim organizations Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah for their indispensable role in promoting democratic values in the country, which contributed significantly to the success of three successive elections earlier this year.
Other preconditions for democracy to work in Muslim societies is open, continuous dialog and the inclusion of the religious establishment in the reform of the political process.
"The example of Iran tells us that by suppressing and marginalizing the religious establishment -- as the only force capable of motivating the Iranian public -- the Shah's reform in the 1970s was bound to run into difficulties," Saikal said, referring to the final days of Shah Reza Pahlevi's rule before being toppled in an Islamic revolution led by Ayatullah Khomeini.
The scholars also blamed the United States for a lack of democracy in Muslim countries.
"On the one hand, the U.S. supports some authoritarian regimes, such as those that prevail in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but on the other hand it opposes the struggling reformist regime like the one in Iran," one scholar explained.