"Christians in Europe may have to rely on Muslims to keep the faith in their continent", what do you think about this assumption?
Answer
I think there may be something to this, although it's not a simple matter of Christians and Muslims, but a question of the role of faith in modernity and post-modernity. I had an interesting experience with a Muslim that I met, an orator called Fuad Nahdi.
He was talking about London the city where I grew up and have lived most of my life. He was saying what a spiritual place it was, how it was cross cut with strong but hidden lines of spirituality and that when he felt like praying he would go to the old cathedrals like St Pauls rather than the new mosque. This surprised me at first, because I am a secular person, and feel I live in a secular world, but he asked me to think about how big a part religion and spiritual belief had played in the formation of my city, country and identity. So I would say, yes in this sense it took a Muslim perspective - which is very aware of faith right now and all around - to make me aware of the spirituality all around me, a good lesson.
Name
zaki
- Malaysia
Profession
student
Question
Could you tell me does democracy exist in Islam or not? if it existed, could you give me some proofs?
Answer
Hello Zaki, let me say first that I am no expert on Islam at all, so my answers are strictly from a personal non-specialist point of view.
However the website I work for strives to publish opinions from all over the world and the political and religious spectrum, and I have learnt a lot from these articles.
One recent article, by a Muslim called Farenna Alam, argues that there is a democratic tradition within Islam, which has been marked by what she calls a tradition of 'moderation and the need to find the middle way',
she also argues that despite what many people in the West would believe Islam has a strong belief in the rule of law, a strong tradition of jurisprudence, and many of the ideas that we associate with Western democratic thought are either there within Islam as well or actually derive from Islamic thought.
This is the kind of argument that openDemocracy.net- our website likes to make because it counters some of the commonly held assumptions about Islam, the Arab world etc...So I do not think nor have ever thought that Islam and democracy are incompatible, but of course there are different complex stories in each local and national circumstance, and democracy always need to be struggled for and defended- such a struggle is essential to a democracy itself, which is why democracies are also going on about democracy.
Name
Sarah
- United Kingdom
Profession
Student
Question
Is there a structural contradiction between Religion & Democracy?
Answer
Thanks Sarah, for cutting to the heart of the matter. I suppose I should have expected this one, but I find it really hard to answer...I think I'll call on my academic training- when in crisis, deconstruct the question. Of course there is a need to define democracy - but that i think can be done - something around the rule of law, human and other rights.
The tricky one here is religion. Are we talking here about the content of religion - a spiritual orientation to the world, Faith, belief - or the structure of organized religions?
I don't know
what I think in relation to the first - I do think that I am spiritual in a way - I don't require proof for everything, I believe in things like the fundamental equality of human beings...but I have a lot of problems with religion when it gets organized, acquires power and authority and gets to legislate the way people life their lives. The latter could easily, and has frequently become contrary to democracy.
I don't think they have to be contradictory - but making sure they are not is hard work- exactly the kind of work we have to do, because life is very complicated, we made it so, and we have to figure these kinds of things out.
Hope that doesn't sound like a cop out
Name
Noor
- Australia
Profession
Question
In Europe, the number of people who regularly attend religious services has steadily declined over the past few decades, why? Is it related to the modernization and democratization of Europe?
Answer
Hi Noor, first let me say again that I'm no expert on religion, so my answers are necessarily objective. No doubt there is a lot of social scientific research which addresses this question
Let me put it like this- I don't know anyone who is a practicing Christian, who goes to church regularly. I don' think this is because I move in particularly irreligious circles.
It seems to have more to do with the fact that the established religions, such as they are, seem to have very little to offer people of my generation - and younger.
Its probably partly to do with the fact that we have forgotten the positive part religion has played (as I said above)- we are all beneficiaries of the good things religion has done in terms of say, education, architecture and charity...but we can also see clearly the great problems that established Christian churches are having coping with modernity- look at the split in the Anglican church over homosexuality, the crisis in Catholicism over child abuse (and the sorry story that tells about what priests have been able to get away with)...
It strikes me as a bit analogous to politics. Membership of political parties is in massive decline, but actually people are becoming more political - they are orgiansing and thinking in non-traditional ways on specific issues, not on whole ideologies .perhaps the same is happening with religion, because I sense a growing need for spiritual value around me, which is being met with all kinds of 'beliefs'- some more spurious than others- Yoga, Buddhism, environmentalism, crystals - For me what I find is that when i work on specific issues that I think are important- stimulating political engagement, climate change - i come into contact with people of all faiths and can see a huge amount of common ground which makes up a kind of baseline of meaning for me - but i don't want to invest any power in a religious institution.
Name
Jack
-
Profession
Question
How you can define democracy in a country like Britain where a lot of people were against war in Iraq while their government goes to the war with cold blood?
Answer
Well how you define democracy remains the same, the question is did the government act democratically by appearing to ignore the wishes of a large section of the population who were against the war (I won't say majority because we don't know that)
There is certainly an argument to be had here- Tony Blair would argue that he was elected democratically to make sometimes unpopular decisions, and this was his right to make, others argues differently (you can read many of these arguments at
The real question it seems to me is how does a democratic system react to a case such as this- what has happened in the Uk is a great deal of discussion and debate- two public enquiries (Butler and Hutton- into different aspects of this), TV and media discussion, and overall Tony Blair's standing seems to have fallen a great deal because of the war in Iraq- within his own party especially Britain's' democracy is by no means perfect- in fact I don't think there can be a perfect democracy- but fundamentally we have the ability to punish our politicians for what they do- and since Blair's government if not lied then at least exaggerated the threat of WMDs, and tried to fool us into supporting the invasion using an absurd 'dossier' we can vote him out if enough of us feel strongly about it. I like this, and think everyone in the world should have the same right.
Name
rahale
-
Profession
Question
We should not get confused with what democracy actually means, and shouldn’t confuse it with westernization which the west actually wants the rest of the world to become which leads to the globalization of the west, with its products and services. Actually democracy suppose to give rights to the people of the country, i.e. action is taken on the majority of the people, however we do not have the proper rights of this so called democracy we do not have a say in the going-on of this country, the mass demonstrations against the war in Iraq is prove of this, and what we actually have is a form of a democratic dictatorship.
However what a lot of Muslims see is the western culture, and they like the light that this brings, we should note the being in this society of democracy brings about the immorality of the people, is this what we want from Islam. Female Muslim have the first rank in the upbringing of our children, then it seems that the immorality of westernization will them be breed into the children and then we shall see the fall in Islam, as we are now seeing in Christianity like gay priest and the alike. We need to find our own way and the sharia is probably the best way forward to do this.
Answer
Thanks for the comment Rahale. There's a lot here but let me just comment on a couple of things. First when you say 'this country' I assume you mean Britain? What your message suggests to me is how important it is to spend some time really thinking about the terms we use. I agree that democracy and 'westernization' are not synonymous- democracy as we know is a very old form of government. A bigger question is what we mean by westernization, and disentangling the elements of 'the West' which are thought to be unique to the west and those which are in fact more universal (like immorality, selfishness,).
Your message is really about the relationship between Muslims and the west- which is indeed a fascinating and complex issue, which needs to take into account- the fact that hundreds of thousand of 'westerners' are Muslims, the fact that Americana and the west in general is widely hated and mistrusted in the Arab World as fares braizats' research shows:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-2-124-2298.jsp
and yet America is also the number one desired destination for education, health care etc there are some contractions here that need to be addressed- honestly. As for Sahr'ia I know little about it, but the question has got to be in the end- who runs the criminal justice system, and how are they made accountable- I'm not saying Britain's ancient legal system is necessarily the paradigm here.
Name
Tom
- United States
Profession
Question
Religion is a threat to the world; democracy is the key for now. Yes, secular people have made mistakes as far as sexual relations, violence, and some other issues. But we grow and learn. In religion it is just chains. My 'god' is the 'real' god or we must pray 5 times a day or else...it's sick. I have never seen an angel in the clouds or a God talk to me. Nobody has. It's all just words. We don't have a Qur'an even from the time of Muhammad in existence, if people are honest on this issue. We rely on Muslims to tell us so and so...Christians too. Anyways, religion should be kept at home behind closed doors; otherwise it just ruins everything for anybody else trying to live in this life to grow. Zealots abound!
Answer
Well Tom that's certainly a forthrightly expressed point of view - and one no doubt shared by others. Perhaps we could call it militant secularism. The problem for me is that it seems to me to come from precisely the same kind of place, or impulse, as any other militant, fundamentalist perspective. It proceeds from the sense that you have already made up you mind about the world, everyone else (hundreds of millions) are wrong, or ignorant, or have 'false consciousness'. It seems so odd that you have posted the message on Islam online.net Its as if you came here precisely to say that, not, as i would hope, to find out more engage in dialogue and try and challenge some of your own assumptions- which are always the ones which need to be challenged first.
I think a bit of humility and listening, finding out and bothering to try and understand might make the difference here. Otherwise it's just your militant position against theirs, or whose hot the biggest guns, which would be a shame.
Name
Aburuqayya
- Nigeria
Profession
Accountancy
Question
What is the origin of liberal democracy? Is liberal democracy compatible with the Islamic sharia? Will it not be negating the tawhid (monotheism) by accepting a system that clearly sees itself as a better alternative for "modernity"?
Answer
Again a proper discussion of Shar'ia law and its relation to liberal democracy is quite beyond me...all I can add is to say that any legal system has to find a framework by which to uphold the laws as decided by the executive, which nevertheless takes into account 'universal values' be they human rights or religious values. As regards the origins of liberal democracy it might be instructive to delve into them because, remember, liberal democracy emerged in countries which were themselves heavily religious- democracy was not an attempt to completely oust religion, but a way to limit the potentially arbitrary powers of the monarch and then the government.
Name
Sajida
-
Profession
Question
What's multiculturalism? I hope it is not another face of the same coin; superiority of the powerful majority which like to keep the different people in their cultural ghettos?
Answer
Well I hope so too, Sajida. Its a lot of different things actually- the idea that we live in societies that are composed of many different cultural groups- kind of obvious but now a growing phenomena with globalization; its a word for a kind of fact (the fact of most cities)...
But it is also the word for the policies which various countries have developed for dealing with this situation- either those designed to support 'cultures under threat', or to 'celebrate diversity' or whatever.
Sometimes it can look like a real but of liberal guilt, political correctness, but for example, in light of the way that white racists bang on about how 'our country' and our race are under attack for foreigners its important to remind them that Britain, for example, has been multicultural, racially mixed and home to lots of different kinds of cultures for a long time. You can read more on this topic here:
How can we as Muslims prove to the world that the Islam is the base of democracy?
Answer
Thanks Doaa, this is an important question I think. On the one hand I can quite understand a lot of Muslims feeling very frustrated, especially after 9/11, about the fact that they were expected to explain Islam to the world, and explain that it is not an inherently violent religion. On the other it is probably time that there was more explanation back and forth about what religious and political adenitis are really all about. I have benefited for example from listening to the people like Fuad Nahdi and Fareena Alam I spoke about before, who helped me understand the very rich and diverse history of Islamic thought- which has had a place for all kinds of ideas including secularism, nihilism, hedonism- as well as the history of Islamic systems of governance which, for example, have always or often made a clear distinction between state and religion. Put simply as a secular person I am always surprised by talking to religious people- they are nearly always funnier, more open-minded, and far less rigid in their thinking than I was led to expect. Quick answer- talk to people about it.
Name
Farah
- United Kingdom
Profession
Student
Question
Hello, do you actually think there any existence of democracy in the world. Many western thinkers, as well as others, have stated that there is no such thing as a democracy. Rather, it is a utopia which has been used to justify the many evils in the world.
The same can be said for religion, but Islam is not a religion.
Answer
Hmm, interesting question. I personally do not think democracy is utopia- I think it is a deeply imperfect, messy, and undesirable system- my utopia would be run by a benevolent dictator whose sole aim was my happiness- and that of the others if they had time - but democracy is the best system we have managed to produce, i think, and the lesser of the evils (and there are many varieties of evil).
As anyone who grew up in a big family or went to a big school knows its not easy to administer, run or adjudicate a group of human beings- they are diverse and different, prone to mood swings and strange outbursts, good and bad in equal measure...no system can ever run a human society totally smoothly or fairly, but a democratic system which provides a measure of protection from arbitrary power, and a degree of involvement in the decision making process (a very small degree really) seems - in the absence of a benign individual dedicated to my happiness alone - the best of the options.
I don't think that democracy itself is too often used to cover up evil, but i do think that democracies have proved themselves capable of evil (Guantenamo is the best recent example) and it is beholden on the citizens of those countries to use the mechanisms of democracy to stop it.
Name
Negma
- Pakistan
Profession
Question
Do you think that the religion is an obstacle in a multicultural society? Does it cause prejudice and hatred?
Answer
Thanks for the question Negma. I don't think religion is the cause of prejudice and hatred - although in many cases it hasn't helped. It seems to me that none of these belief systems are the cases of, to use shorthand, evil- hatred, prejudice, murder - but they can become the alibi, or the excuse. The cause of hatred in my view most often comes done to some basics human emotions like envy, anger, guilt, fear...the problem is that some religions, as with many ideological systems- fascism for example- play on these emotions, appear to give a logic and shape to peoples feelings of inferiority and anger- which of course are often justified - exploit these feelings and then can become part of hatred and murder (there are many examples). Where religion provides a framework for thinking through your relationship to the infinite and divine, other people, your community and family it seems to me a positive force (as long as you have the right to choose how you experience it)
Where it becomes a question of us vs. them- giving people the sense that they are inherently superior to anyone else, I have a problem with it. I am not a Christian but the thing I always liked about Christ, and other religious figures like Bhudda, Muhammad and Gandhi, was their humility. Something that is in very short supply in the world.
