Cultural geography (with number and section)
Do Islam and Democracy Co-exist?
Sometimes it is interesting and even weird how we, people of the Western, so to say, origin, whose values have derived from the beliefs of our ancestors who established the Old World, cannot accept that there may be other views on how the world should operate than the one we, Europeans and Americans have coined and are living up to. In the course of centuries we have manages to build a society where state and church go separate ways, where there is a universally recognized array of values and where liberty is the main driving force of progress. And how great our misunderstanding can be when it comes to the fact that societies other than Western ones have their lives go completely differently. We just cannot imagine that their array of values and principles is better than ours. One of the most striking examples of this is misunderstanding how Islam can be a good alternative to the generally accepted way of life based on Western values.
Islam is accused of a lot of things starting with undemocratic nature of it and finishing with extremism it inspires. The first association probably every Western person has when talking about Islam is that women there are unequal and do not enjoy any rights whatsoever. The second thought, unfortunately (and especially in the wake of the 9/11 happening) is an assumption which for some reason is almost always and almost by everyone is taken for granted – Islam and terrorism are almost synonyms.
I am far from accepting those thoughts for granted as I think that much of this bias does not have any ground beneath it whatsoever. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to prove that Islam and democracy do co-exist.
Before starting propounding my arguments I would like to make one reservation, which, however, comes only from my own perception and my own understanding. The thing is that I think that democracy, being a generic term cannot at the same time be taken as an absolute. What I mean is that maybe it is worth understanding and accepting that democracy as we, people of Western origin, know it is not the same understanding the Muslim have. We, Western people and they, Muslims, have too different arrays of values on which it is impossible that democracy of the very same nature be founded, I presume. Anyway, let me substantiate it by elaborating on my arguments.
My first argument consists in the empiric assumption that we misunderstand Islam very much and cannot tell between real provisions of this religion and speculations, of which there are host. The cause for such a great number of speculations may be the fact that Islam is way too widespread in the Greater Middle East and such great territory cannot but mean many differences in religion between different parts of Islam followers. Didn’t we see just the same with Christianity (except, fortunately, this happened almost without any bloodshed)? It is so widespread that it is hardly possible to hold count of all the denominations within Christianity today. Anyway, such multiplicity of what Islam has led to the situation where we hear about ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and other terroristic organizations which lead jihad against the West. And we think: “If it said in Quran that jihad is a war on the infidel, how this can be democratic or even acceptable in general?” However, very few of us know what jihad is. According to what is written in Quran – and not to what is speculated – jihad is any activity a pious Muslim can do with a view to spreading the knowledge about Islam, bettering his life in the name of God and living up to Islam values. There is no single word mentioned about war there! Jihad, indeed, can be teaching or preaching, because that is spreading the values of Islam, jihad can be raising own kids in the spirit of Islam, jihad can be
the five-time prayer every Muslim does every day! Speculations consisting in the fact that jihad is war against infidel do not have any real ground and are not recognized by the Muslim clerical top. Generally it should be mentioned that no canonic Muslim structure recognizes what extremists do and strongly condemn their usage of things not authorized by the Quran. Therefore, extremists and terrorists we are used to associate with Islam do not have anything to do with the core of the values of this religion and should not be regarded as an indicator of democracy of Islam.
The next misunderstanding is that women do not have any rights in Islam which is also not true. The fact that the real stance is sometimes unfortunately such in some countries does not even remotely mean that this is what Quran says about the issue. Of course, women do not enjoy many rights in Afghanistan or in Iran, but that is not because of religion – that is because of political reasons! Have a look, at Lebanon or many other countries of Greater Middle East, where women do not only enjoy all the rights but don’t even have to wear clothes that hide every single part of their flash. And, at the end of the day, even if women have to wear those, have we ever thought why we Europeans think that they are oppressed with things like it but they themselves never complained about it? Maybe, that is just a part of the culture they like, accept and do not see any reason to oppose.
The second argument I would like to propound is a fully empiric one. I want to bring about the example of Turkey, and that is for several reasons. On the one hand, the country is very pious and sticks to Islam much, especially that since 2002 The Party of Justice and Progress, the core idea of which is sticking to Muslim roots, is ruling the country. This is the country that manages to strike a delicate balance between religious prescriptions found in Quran and secular nature of the society and does it so well, that it can be a good example for other Muslim countries. For instance, Turkey is taking part in numerous projects of the EU, including customs union and has been negotiating with the EU for a long time about possible membership. Also, Turkey is the associate member of the EU since 1967. Now, we know that the very fact of the possibility of negotiating with the EU means that the latter recognized democratic nature of the country and in the light of the fact that numerous documents such “Instrument on partnership” or “the Package of measures” have been signed between the EU and Turkey means that Islam and democracy do co-exist and even can work together.
Finally, the third argument is the fact, that all the Muslim states have signed numerous documents such as the Declaration of human rights, the Charter of the UN and many others. This may seem an indirect argument but we must realize that their signature gives the world the opportunity to bring a country to books if it has violated what it has signed. Therefore these signatures are not just signatures – they are obligations all the countries (and Muslim ones among that number) are undertaking to adhere to and to provide more just living for their citizens.
Therefore, these were my arguments in substantiation of my belief that democracy and Islam do co-exist. I tried to analyze not what we are told through mass-media, but I tried to go deeper, to the very basic documents and historic grounds which helped me, I think, coin an unprejudiced opinion about the matter. Now, what can be truer about Islam than things that Quran says? Definitely not speculations on terrorism. What can prove that Muslim countries are committed to universal human values? The fact of their signatures, not speculations on the matter of women and so on. What can dispel the myth that democracy and Islam do not intercept? An example of the country that has successfully done the opposite.
Bibliography
“Uneasy Companions.” The Economist. 6 August 2011. Accessed 20 June 2015. http://www.economist.com/node/21525410
Akyol, Mustafa. “Faith versus tradition in Islam.” TED talks. March 2011. Accessed 20 June 2015. http://www.ted.com/talks/mustafa_akyol_faith_versus_tradition_in_islam
Ben-Meir, Alon. “Is Islam Compatible with Democracy?” Huffington Post. August 7 1013. Accessed 20 June 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-benmeir/is-islam-compatible-with_b_3562579.html
