ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY. It is said mainly by Western Media that ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY R INCOMPATIBLE. This is an absurdity. There is nothing Islamic or unislamic about democracy. Democracy is the outcome of a political process, not a religeous process. It is glibly suggested that every Muslim country is a dictatorship, conveniently forgetting that the four of the largest Muslim population of the world, in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Turkey vote to change goverments. Pakisthan could easily have been on the list. Voting does not make these Muslims either less or more religeous. There r dictators among Muslims as there r dictatord among Christans, Buddhists and Hindus. Robert Mugabe was not a Muslim, but no one suggests that Christianity is not compatible with democracy. Christan Latin America has seen ugly forms of dictatorship as has Christan Africa. Is Christanity to be blamed because Nazis were Christan? That would be preposterous. There r more than one billion people who never ever enjoyed the slightest whiff of democracy since the days of Adams, the Chinese, but no one organises seminar on Confucianism and democracy. Nor should they. What is unique to the Muslim world is not the absence of democracy but the fact that in 1918 after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, every single Muslim of the world lived under foreign subjugation. Every single one from Indonesia to Morocco via Turkey. The Turks resisted and threw out their invaders within a few years under the great leadership of Kamal Attaturk, but transition to self rule in other Muslim countries was slow, painful, uncertain and full of traps planted by worlds pre-eminent powers. The West, in the shape of Britain, France or America was never interested in democracy when a helpful dictator or king would serve. When people got a chance to express their wish, it was very logical that they would ask for popular rule. It was the street that brought Mossaddegh to power in Iran and drove the Shah of Iran to tearful exile in Rome. Who brought the Shah of Iran and autocracy back to Iran? The CIA. If Iranian democracy had been permitted a chance in 1953, there would have been no uprising led by Ayatollah Khomeni in 1979. In other countries where the struggle for independence was long and brutal, as in Algeria and Indonesia, the militias who had faught the war institutionalised Army authority. In other instances, civilian heros confused their own well-being with National health. They became regressive dictators. Once there was nothing Islamic about it. Seokorno might have been as nominal a Muslim as Julius Nyerere was a nominal Christan. .
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 11:47:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015