Muslim countries declared ready for democracy
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.