Islam And Democracy Essay

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Is Islam compatible with democracy? A question that many scholars, politicians, and other people try to find an answer for. Each person would answer this questions based on his/her thoughts, knowledge, and sometimes beliefs. Islam and democracy has been a controversial matter over many years. It never fails to be a point of interest for people whom are involved with politics and/or seek to be on familiar terms with politics. A large literature has built up arguing that Islam has all the elements of modern condition and society. Many Muslim scholars seek to provide evidence that Islam preserves democratic values. Democracy is determined by many several components such as wealth, culture, knowledge. Some people believe that religion is part of democracy’s components as well. In many arguments, religion is mostly seen as an element that hinders democracy, which is something others disagree with. Moreover, many people try to give verifications and evidences to prove that in Muslim countries, democracy is either weak or does not exist. Also, those people use religion, such as Quranic verses, to put in plain words this observable fact. On the other hand, other people believe that Islam, or religion in general, cannot be utilized to clarify democracy or its improvements and expansions. In this essay the topic or the idea of Islam and democracy will be discussed and viewed from the eyes and point of view of the two thinkers, Bernard Lewis, and Irfan Ahmed. Both thinkers disagree on whether Islam and democracy are compatible with each other. In addition, they tend to offer many different arguments on Islam, democracy, and the political nature of Islam among others. As many people oppose different definitions to the words Islam and democrac...

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...iting you to dinner?” (pg 462) which by this point he has pointed out that democracy has several meanings and forms between countries, societies, and people. Irfan restate his argument by saying that it is by asset of the contribution in the democratic processes that norms, values, and interpretations of religion get reconfigured, not prior to the inauguration of the democratic process.
Irfan Ahmed and Bernard Lewis are both thinkers that conveyed their ideas on how Islam and democracy are incompatible with each other. Each thinker provided different arguments that supported his point of view uniquely. Though they had the same point to prove, they still supported their point in a different matter, but still agreed in some sense. Although Islam is incompatible with democracy, there are still some democratic practices that may be seen sometimes in the Muslim society.

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