Islamic Democracy
By Qaisar Sultan
A white horse is not a horse, an old Chinese logic. Since horse is a shape and white is a color; something that denotes color cannot designate a shape. On the similar lines, Islamic democracy is neither Islamic nor democracy. The enlightenment period changed the autocratic rules in Europe which lead to the political secularism, radically separating the realm of faith and that of the reason. We cannot call liberal democracy a “Christian democracy” or “Islamic democracy”. Democracy is simply empowering people that brings them freedom of thought, speech and practice of their faith. The maxim “Islamic democracy” helps religious fervor to grow; and claimants are not majority of people but those who intemperate the religion. The idea of democracy to religious zealots is to grab the power and convert the country into a theocratic state. In order to have a civil polity is to strive for a culture based on justice, compassion, equitable division of wealth, fairness, honesty and dignity of all the citizens. The value system should include reason accessible to, irrespective of the religious belief is part of that political secularism. The political secularism is not Christian, Hindu or Muslim polity. It is helpful to find that sense of reason; we have all those reasons in our religion. The only danger is that the orthodoxy plays a crucial role in taking a fair political system to narrow interpretation of fundamentalist religious school of thoughts. A secular way of governance cannot be read as Islamic; if we only talk about a faithless culture. The liberal democracy that we are after is based on certain secular and liberal principles. First of all, if it is not in Quran or Sunnah, it cannot be an Islamic tradition or an Islamic law. Quran talks about consultation among people, justice and equal rights. The Islamic governance and the attributes of Muslim leaders and principles of governance are described in Quran. The form of the government is not the essence of Muslim polity. The Islamic government should be based on justice and free from the corruption and evil. The problem lies in the mind set of those who represent and interpret our religious values. The orthodoxy and going back in time of old Muslim rules negate all of the secular and liberal principles. The debate should not be limited to atheist style hard core secularism where the religion has to be marginalized. The focus should be on the liberal views of justice, human rights, pluralism and rationalism. The modern corrupt rulers of Muslim states have taken the advantage of this mind set. The Islamic states have created a false elitism of corrupt, religious and feudal, rich and powerful, forces. What we call an Islamic state that has changed into an autocratic rule, refusing to include the very principles of Islamic values of justice and fairness. The freedom of speech is being denied in those theocratic governments. The dilemma for the extreme religious posture is if a state promotes their faith and curbs and opposes other faiths they feel very proud. But if in another country they ban their religious culture and values; and declares them minorities and treated them as such then we have difficulty with that. There is a refusal of robust debate that includes the sectarian, ethnic, financial responsibility, international sensitivities and tribal concerns. The rich, feudal and corrupt politicians, autocrats, military rulers take advantage of the prevailing confusion.Read More »Islamic Democracy