Unclothing Democracy (muslims understand that Islam and democracy are not compatible)

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Khilafah . com ^ 23 February 2005

And do not clothe (cover) truth with falsehood, while you know what it is.” (Al-Baqarah:42)
One would be forgiven into believing that the amount of times that George Bush referred to democracy in his inaugural speech for his second term as US President that he actually believed in it.

It is not that democracy has any real substance, it never really did. In history, nations and their philosophers who sought to bring life to it only ended up discarding it or spending the rest of their philosophical lives trying to re-engineer it within more philosophical constraints.

Meanwhile, the modern day western politicians and capitalists have been thriving upon it, seducing the world’s states to adopt democracy as the only way to become progressive and civilized. Such is the dominance and influence of western political philosophy over the mind-set of academics, politicians, nations and people – it is as if one would be considered a heretic to even suggest an alternative or to even challenge the validity and application of democracy….and at least be popularly labelled as a fundamentalist, extremist and averse to world peace.

This stranglehold, not surprisingly, today stills deals an unfortunate blow for many leading Islamic thinkers, academics and scholars – who – in their sincere attempts to preserve Islam have made the grave error of wanting to present Islam as not simply ‘democractic’, but the actual source of democracy.

Recently, whilst, Sheikh al-Qardawi on his regular slot on Al-Jazeera was trying hard to defend ‘Islamic democracy’ against a tirade of Muslim callers at pains to point out their fundamental incompatibility – an article printed on-line by ArabNews entitled ‘Muslims and Democracy’ (21/02/05) referred to New York University professor, Noah Feldman, a theorist of Islamic democracy, who observed in his book, ‘After Jihad’, “that the caliphs never had absolute authority...the historical roots (for democracy) are there for modern Muslims who want to draw on the historical narrative”.

Without doubt, the rise of political Islam has been a key cause for the exponential rise in the discussions, conferences, papers, policies to equate Islam with democracy. The guardians of the bastion of ‘western capitalism’ have not only begun to see their own people increasingly beginning to reject the western values, and at least see the open hypocrisies of their western governments, but they have witnessed their worst fear, a global rise in political Islam that challenges the very existence of capitalism, its values and exposes the continuation of imperialist policies around the world, particularly in the Muslim world with the aid of puppet regimes.

To this end, Muslims must be like a cog in this Islamic political wheel. Indeed Muhammad (Sallallahu alaihi wassalam) said, “The wheels of Islam are turning, so turn with it.”
The Muslims must present the truth as truth and the falsehood as falsehood. The Muslims must not cower in intellectual defeat from the current dominant western political climate of words, values and indeed actions…seeking reconciliation, where there is none and attempt to mould Islam by words and meanings to make it more palatable for western political consumption, though such words and their meanings are alien to Islamic political philosophy and fundamentally contradict the Islamic creed. Indeed Allah (Subhanahu wa ta’ala) says (in the translation of the meaning),

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“And do not clothe (cover) truth with falsehood, while you know what it is.” (Al-Baqarah:42)
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“O you who believe, do not say ‘Ra’ina, but rather say, ‘Unthurna…” (Al-Baqarah:104).
This ayat was revealed in connection to the incident of where Jews used a word which had a meaning and changed its meaning to insult Muhammad (saw), thereby the Muslims were prohibited from using it.

So where does that leave democracy? The well-known definition of democracy is of a government that is established, ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’. By simply scratching at its surface, it is clear that it democracy no relationship with Islam in its generality or in its detail. The following points should be observed:
Origins Democracy has originated from the mind of man, whereas Islam has originated from Allah (swt).

Basis Democracy has its basis in secularism i.e. the detachment of religion from life, whereas Islam is based upon a comprehensive socio-economic and political structure where 'religion' i.e. the shariyah, is the source of all legislation.

Thoughts Democracy produces thoughts such as the four general freedoms (belief, individual, speech and ownership), people are the source of legislation, and the rule of the majority. Islam by contrast does not allow these absolute freedoms, nor are the people the source of legislation and neither is the Islamic ruling based on majority rule.

Systems Democracy produces systems that incorporate a legislative body (parliament or equivalent), political parties that function to oppose and compete against the government and a time limit for leadership (normally 4-5 years office). The Islamic political structure has no such structures or systems. In Islam there is no legislative body and the Khaleefah is the judicial and executive power. Political parties in Islam exist for one duty that is to account the government and raise the political and intellectual level of the ummah. Political parties are not permitted to compete for power and become an 'opposition party'. Also, the ruler in Islam is the ruler for as long as he implements Islam and as long as he does not contradict the conditions of ruling and neither resigns or dies.

Though in Islam there are elections for the appointment of the leader (Ameer) over the Muslims, one cannot say that elections are what makes Islam and democracy similar, for this is like comparing a dog to a chair and saying that since both have four legs, they are similar. In the west, elections represent the concept that people are sovereign over their affairs and the source of legislation, whereas in Islam elections represent the shariyah rule that the people have the authority and obligation to appoint a ruler to govern them with Islam.

It should be evident therefore that democracy has no relationship with Islam. Indeed the very misery that is being caused in the Muslim world i.e. oppression, suppression of any attempt to account the rulers, denial of rights, nepotism, people political enfranchisement – has been caused and supported by the ‘west’. It is evident that the drive for democracy is only to secure their control over the Muslim world and suppress the rise of political Islam – since their puppets have lost the ability to do this for them and the world has started to talk about the injustices that have the hidden support of western governments.

The intellectual political climate today is ripe for the Muslims to present the Islamic political framework and thoughts and not succumb to the western political philosophy.