Summary
Title: Islam and Democracy
Author: Fatima Mernissi
Publisher: Perseus
ISBN: 0738207454
Pro:
• Political and religious problems covered
• Perspective of an insider, not an outsider
Con:
• Technical at times, might be difficult for some readers
Description:
• Theoretical and actual status of democracy in Islam
• Political and religious basis for democracy’s status discussed
• Suggestions for future efforts
Book Review
Fatima Mernissi, who teaches sociology in Morocco, addresses these questions in a book which takes a detailed look at the relationship between Islamic and democratic principles. According to her, the question of democracy in Islam cannot be separated from a larger question which often preoccupies Muslims: If Islam is a revelation directly from God, then why is the secular West so much more powerful than the devout Islamic East?
Radical Islamists generally argue that the weakness of Muslim nations is due to the fact that they simply aren’t Muslim enough. There was no great weakness in the earliest years of Islam when God’s laws were followed more rigorously and when Islam spread quickly across the Middle East and Northern Africa. But today there is too much laxity and too much interest in parroting the West. Once Islamic law is fully implemented (again), all problems will disappear, and Islam will be strong again.
Others, however, regard the West’s strength as deriving in large part from its democratic institutions, and thus conclude that the implementation of those institutions in Muslim countries would do a great deal to enhance their economic and political power. But this, of course, is not in the interest of those who currently rule.
For that reason, political leaders in the Middle East play a dangerous game by inflaming people’s fears of the West. This is accomplished by associating democratic institutions and ideals (among other things) with the imperialistic and crusading history of the Christian West. Democracy and liberal freedoms are thus characterized as being decadent, godless and un-Islamic.
This is a problem, however, because it plays right into the hands of the radical Islamists, expanding their base of influence in the wider culture. This creates a constant danger to the ruling powers because they themselves can easily be characterized as also un-Islamic. They tend to have strong military and economic ties with the West, often relying upon foreign aid just to survive. Thus, these leaders help to create and nurture a force which has more than once come back to bite them.
