Islam and Democracy
June 7, 2009 by circlegroup
Filed under Inspirations
Islam and Democracy
A Cooperative Approach Toward Understanding Democracy: A Foundation for Ending Extremism and Preventing Conflict by J.E. Rash, was created as part of a citizen exchange program delivered by Legacy International, entitled Religion, Human Rights & Democracy: Peer Interactions between Religious and Civic Leaders in the U.S. and in Kazakhstan. Activities for the Religion, Human Rights & Democracy program were designed “to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries; to strengthen the ties which unite us with other nations.and thus to assist in the development of friendly, sympathetic and peaceful relations between the United States and the other countries of the world.”
i want to thank you for this amazing and very inspiring book (democracy and Islam), it took me a month to read it (and I didn’t finish it yet, only 15 pages that Ill read soon to finish it) , without any flattery, its one of the my favorite book I had read.( Looking forward to read : Turning Toward the Heart) plz see some questions and my feed back:
in page 20 : the author says that freedom of expression can emerge in an autocracy (the example of Aljazeera) i think that’s not true, Aljazeera cannot talk about some local Qatari issues ,
freedom of expression cannot emerge in an autocracy ,and i agree with the author that the principals of Islam guarantee this human right .
in the page 33: i loved the steering wheel example ,its a smart illustration of the adaptation of Democracy to Islam.
In page 35:
Few muslims would disagree with US constitution ?
In page 45:
What do you mean by the influence of Wahabi, and what’s their interpretation of Islam
Page 49;
Any examples of the education that seeks s to insure conformity by repeating lies ,half truths,and propaganda.
Page 63:
I liked the summary :
Not all Muslims societies are living up to the Islamic ideals of economic and social equity ……….
Page96
The reason that us avoid imposing a state religion ( I think you mean considering as a religion of state-like Muslims country-)is that there is a variety of ethnicity and religions in US, (its not the same in Muslims countries)
Page 97
If you ask me to summary the book I will choose that quote:
Took principals of Islam and extrapolate from them a secular form of government ,what would it look be, answer is Islam
In the same page you say that
In islam , there is no secularism, but in the same time it doesn’t compel everyone to be Muslim. Which, is in my opinion a kind of secularism.