A rchive Date
[ 07-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Muslims ]
|
[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/leishman.html
Islam, democracy appear incompatible
By RORY LEISHMAN - London Free Press
Is Islam compatible with democracy? Consider the evidence provided in the exhaustive annual surveys of freedom in the world conducted by the New York-based civil liberties organization, Freedom House. According to its report for 2002, 86 of the world's 192 countries are "free," in that they recognize basic political rights and civil liberties, 58 countries rank as "partly free" and the remaining 48 are "not free."
However, among the 16 Arabic states in the Islamic heartland of the Middle East and North Africa, there is not a single electoral democracy. Within the entire group of 47 Islamic majority countries, only one qualifies as "free."
That's the North African country of Mali, which has been blessed since 1992 with enlightened rule by its first elected president, Alpha Konare, who holds a doctorate in history from Warsaw University.
Despite the nearly universal record of political oppression in Islamic countries, Freedom House maintains "recent history shows that Islam is not inherently incompatible with democratic values. Indeed, if we take into account the large Muslim populations of such countries as India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey and the Islamic populations of North America and Western Europe, the majority of the world's Muslims lives under democratically constituted governments."
This argument is poppycock. Far from exemplifying the compatibility of Islam with democracy, India is remarkable for having maintained some semblance of democracy despite a history of chronic internal strife between its Hindu majority and Muslim minority.
"In Nigeria," Freedom House acknowledges, "a clash has erupted between fundamentalist Islamic forces seeking to impose their version of sharia (Islamic prescriptions related to lifestyle and law) in states where Muslims predominate and pursue policies that violate basic rights, in particular the rights of religious minorities and women."
Moreover, by Freedom House's own account, Bangladesh and Indonesia are only "partly free." And the same goes for quasi-democratic Turkey, whose government systematically suppresses anti-democratic Islamist political parties and movements for fear they might win an election.
In Kuwait, the ruling elite has recently devolved some power on an elected parliament. Freedom House reports the results: "Fundamentalists have captured substantial numbers of seats and are seeking to impose their version of sharia on Kuwaiti society."
The conclusion is inescapable: In marked contrast to Christianity, Islam is fundamentally incompatible with democracy. Jesus renounced political power. The prophet Mohammed seized political control. He was not just a religious leader, but also a military chieftain and a political dictator who imposed a detailed legal code on his followers and did not shrink from ordering the execution of his critics.
While the Christian church has embraced freedom, democracy and the separation of church and state over the last 300 years, there has been no comparable development within Islam. Quite the contrary. In What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, Bernard Lewis, a Princeton historian, notes that a strong reaction has recently developed among Muslims to secular and democratic reforms. He relates: "A whole series of Islamic radical and militant movements share the objective of undoing the secular reforms of the last century and returning to the Holy Law of Islam and an Islamic political order."
Over the last 20 years, non-Islamic countries in Latin America, Africa, East-Central Europe and South and East Asia have gained in democracy and freedom. During this same period, reports Freedom House, "the countries of the Islamic world experienced an equally significant increase in repressive regimes."
Freedom House lists 10 countries as having the worst rating for oppression in the world. Two - Cuba and North Korea - are Marxist-Leninist holdovers. One, Burma, is a brutal military dictatorship. The seven others - Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Turkmenistan - are all countries in which Muslims comprise a majority of the population.
The virtually unanimous record of political oppression in predominantly Islamic countries makes plain that they will never make the transition from inveterate political oppression to freedom and democracy without first experiencing either profound secularization or a radical reinterpretation of Islam. Alas, there is no sign either transformation might soon occur.
Write Rory at The London Free Press, P.O. Box 2280, London, Ont. N6A 4G1 or fax 519-667-4528 or E-mail. Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@lfpress.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|