The Liberal-Democratic State and Islam: Can the two coincide?

A recent article I have stumbelled into in A-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper has made me think a little bit about why does liberal democracy lag behind in the Middle East and can it co-exist with Islam. My conclusion was that the two, Liberal-Democracy and Islam, can co-exist; however only after a fundamental change occurs in the Middle East with regard to the role of Islam in the state. Here is why.

The article in A-Sharq Al-Awsat began with a very astute observation that throughout the years Islamist thought had no problem adjusting to models of the state. This was no surprise since many states in the old times were based on either authoritarian or religious based regime. Both these models, models that brought forward structures like that of the caliphate, suited the absolutist role Islamist thinkers at the time thought Muslim religion should have. However since then things have changed; particularly after the emergence of the nation-state.

The nation-state was a model that shuffled all the cards. Religion and\or authoritarianism were replaced by a social contract between the state and the people; a contract that replaced religion in the centre of the state. It was meant to answer the divisions (though not always to great success) inside those states with regards to religion, ethnicity and other points of diversity that threatened to tear the old notion of the state apart. Legitimacy did no longer emerge from authority or the scriptures, it emerged from the people. Religion was somewhat pushed aside. Islamist thought's not-so-brief stint with the state was about to be over. But is that necessarily the case?

Islamist thought in the old ages has proven itself quite adaptive. It has managed to adapt to the old ideas of the state, proving it can adapt to changing circumstances. Today's liberal-democracy is the modern challenge for Islam and the Middle East. That challenge requires, as I noted, a fundamental change in the role of religion in the state.

In modern liberal-democracy, religion has taken a second seat. This is not to say that it has vanished, nor does it need to vanish; it simply means that it has shifted from the state-realm to the personal realm, meaning that religious observance has become a matter of personal choice. Religion still holds a meaningful role in the state as it affects all of our perceptions of right and wrong; but it has taken a second seat to people-based legitimacy that rooted out the intolerant elements of religion for the most part through tolerance and diversity. And so that switch, from religious authority to people-based legitimacy is what has to occur in the Middle East; but can it? At the risk of being tagged as a foolish optimistic, I say 'yes'.

The world today and the people in it are not the same people of the middle ages. Technology has become more sailient and people can see how other people live. The idea of a better life though personal choice has become more and more prevelant in people's minds, even in the Middle East and underdeveloped countries as mass migrations indicate. The authoritarianism of old Islamist thought has become the enemy of the regimes that still hold it. Ahamdinejad's case is likely to be the prime example. And so in light of all of this, I stick to my belief that the change in the role of religion in Middle Eastern societies that will facilitate the co-existance of liberal democracy and Islam, is possible.

Tags:
Islam, Middle East, Democracy, Politics, Liberal Democracy